Mahou Sensei Kain! Act 12!
by Chris-Sasami-Bunny
Summary: Things are beginning to heat up, with the arrival of Momo and the Soul reapers be in time? What could our villians really be planning for the magical world? And how on earth is Kain going to stop them in time? Okay... the answers to only one of these questions will be answered now, but read on!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Prologue

Artoria stood on the balcony, leaning over the railing, watching her two young charges down below. They were in the company of one of her royal knights and his, for want of a better word, squire. A soft smile was on her face. Even Hans had perhaps met his energetic match in those two...

A page rapped on the doorframe behind her and announced visitors. She turned and her smile deepened as the two Mahora teachers came walking in. "Takamichi- _kun_...it's been a while," she greeted the man. "You've really grown up. And you...must be Meia Gisborn- _sensei_. The principal has spoken much about you, as well."

Meia gave a polite bow, stating her honor at meeting the illustrious queen, while Takamichi chuckled. "And you've hardly changed at all, Saber- _san_...you certainly don't look your age. But that's one of the gifts of the Pendragon line, isn't it?" He and Meia joined her on the balcony, and he glanced down below. "Ah? Isn't that...Riku- _kun_ and Kaoru- _kun_?"

"Yes...it seems they and a few of Kain's other students sneaked through the gate with him. They wound up here in the aftermath of the Gate's destruction...luckily for them, and, perhaps, for me as well.

"I'm surprised you came here," she continued, focusing on her two guests more fully. "Your word suggested that you came to Arcanus Myrror in order to help Kain and his band out. With more of your forces, as well..."

"We've split up to meet with as much of the scattered party as we can," Meia explained. "However...the very nature and magnitude of this attack suggests who the perpetrators were, as well as what we've learned from the few reliable witnesses. Furthermore, some of the governments seem unconcerned about the inherent danger, as evidenced by the official public explanation for these events. Whatever they're plotting, it's only going to undermine our efforts to resist this new threat...and, even for us, stopping them is of greater importance than the safety of our students. We've been coordinating with our reliable allies in order to prepare a resistance for when the attack comes."

Artoria nodded. "Regrettable, but sensible. However, from what I've been able to learn so far, Kain is doing fine himself. Avalon will, of course, use all its powers to resist the enemy. What have you learned so far?"

"It seems Aiden- _san_ has been in contact with Kain- _kun_ ," Takamichi replied. "And I know Kamo- _kun_ has been with him for a while now, as well. Mai is one of our lost lambs at the moment, but we have some of our most reliable support backing her up." As the queen raised an eyebrow at this news Takamichi continued, "We've made contact with both Urahara Kisuke and Mashiro Kazahana, the leader of Garderobe Academy. Both are already putting plans in motion, and both are starting out helping to gather Kain- _kun_ 's scattered friends as well. No word from the Soul Society yet, however."

"From what the Royal Archmage tells me, that is likely to continue," Artoria replied. "With the gates between the two worlds all gone, there is a corruption in the flow of time betwixt the two—specifically, the rate of time here is greatly accelerated, and Soul Society, while it is not cut off, is still more closely connected to Earth. It is therefore moving, from our point of view, at the same greatly reduced speed. Even if they were to send aid immediately, it would not arrive for several weeks, if not months." She smiled slightly. "Although, from what I hear, there is already one captain out and about here on Arcanus Myrror. He, too, seems more interested in Kain than anything else right now."

"That is something," Meia agreed. "It seems like, for better or worse, everything is going to come to a head at the Memorial Festival in Orimus..."

F I N

 _Author's Note: Assembling_

 _With Yue out of the way, we're returning to Kain, finally! And for the Prologue, since I already cameo'd most of the party at the end of Act 11, I decided to show what happened to the two teachers, who are acting as the intermediaries to start assembling the allied force. One thing Negima lacked was a concentrated group of Nagi's old allies...there were cameos and suggestions of some of the leaders who helped him, but for the most part, it was_ all _on the kids. Well, nothing really wrong with that, them being the heroes of the story and all, but they needed a little bit more support. Of course, between all the allies I've given them, Kain's party will have to have stiffer opposition from the Obsidian Star, and he will have it—the Obsidian Star, in its entirety, is a much nastier organization than Cosmo Entelechia._

 _In any case, let's move on with the story!_


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter One: The Shadow of Death

"Twenty years ago, Arcanus Myrror was involved in a war, the likes of which had not been seen in generations! A terrible secret organization was plotting to bring the whole world to chaos, working behind the scenes to drive this war! There seemed to be nothing that could be done to stop them...

"However! A powerful group of gallant warriors emerged to combat this menace! They were called: 'The Red Wings'! And their leader was, needless to say: Kalan Lockeheart, the Grand Archmage! The boy was but a youth, just shy of his teenage years, and yet it was said he knew a thousand spells!

"In addition, there were his companions: the black-clad magician, said to bring bad luck to friends and enemies alike: Archmage Allen 'Jynx' Black!

"The quiet samurai, whose power grew frighteningly with his wrath: Shinmeiryû swordsman Eishun Higurashi!

"The chain-smoking, well-dressed gentleman, former dog of the military: master of _kanka_ , Gato Kagura Vandenburg!

"The cool-as-a-cucumber captain of the Gotei 13's Sixth Company, prideful head of one of Seireitei's four greatest families: Soul Reaper Byakuya Kuchiki!

"Descendant of the renowned King Arthur, wielding his own legendary sword, the Princess of Avalon: the Magic Knight Artoria 'Saber' Pendragon!

"And then there were some others, some kids or something, but whatever...

"And then...finally...there was _that_ man. Treasure hunter, archaeologist, mage hunter, mercenary...the man of a thousand weapons and a thousand techniques, the man who had uncovered the deepest secrets of the magical world Arcanus Myrror! The hero Kalan's only possible true rival: the lone gunman, Aiden Rylack!"

Kain and Chisame sat in the seats provided, staring at the screen as video footage played in time with Aiden's narration. Kain's face was a mask of awe, while Chisame seemed rather exasperated with the whole business.

Having finished his demonstration, Aiden looked over his audience. "Oh? Is the little lady not interested in this?"

Chisame sighed, and then allowed herself to explode. "No! That's not it! What's with this weird explanation, anyway!? Ignoring the pompous nature of it, wasn't the last thing you told us that Kain- _sensei_ would have to die in order to level up!? What on earth are we doing watching this, then!?"

"It's been three Acts since we appeared at all," Aiden explained patiently. "I figured our readers needed a bit of a refresher before we dove in..."

"No! We shouldn't be talking about that! And furthermore, how is that a refresher!? Those people are from twenty years ago! That has nothing to do with us here, now, with Kain- _sensei_ 's problem!"

Aiden sighed. "Fine, fine. Well, where were we, then? Kain's come here to try and level up so he can stand up to the Obsidian Star like his father did, but he's still a kid with a few things holding him back. So I just gave him his ultimatum: that we could find a way to give him that level, but he'll have to die in order to get it. So I showed this as a bit of a distraction. He needs to think about this carefully; this isn't a choice that you make lightly, after all. Death is serious business."

"Right, whatever," Chisame said, finally calming down. "But when you say he needs to die, you're talking metaphorically, right? I mean, it wouldn't do any good to level up if it really _killed_ him, after all..."

"Metaphorically...that really depends on your point of view." He chuckled as Chisame shot him a needle-filled glare, frustration marking her features plainly. "Okay, let me explain as best I can. I have something that can give Kain power and, possibly, even mentality enough to fully engage in this coming battle. However, this power will change who he is...in ways I can only speculate on. He will certainly stop being human, become something else, practically immortal. He may very well end up not really being Kain anymore. And, of course, that's only if he survives it...there's a good chance that the change may kill him entirely. If he agrees to this, he needs to go in knowing he's going to die."

"T-that's heavy," Chisame sighed. "How could anyone make a choice like that? As I said, there's no point in getting this power if death is the only possible outcome..."

"That's up to every man to decide for himself." Aiden turned to Kain. "What do you think, Kain? Your girl here is certainly chatty, but what do you think about this?"

Kain sat there, still calm, still contemplating everything that had been said. "This way...this incredibly dangerous path...it's the only way I can get the power I need?"

"Well...probably. The truth is, there's only one person I ever met who was as strong or stronger than you were at that age...and that, of course, was Kalan himself. You've been in the presence of monsters since you were young, people like Takamichi, and even Alysaser from what Kamo told me...but there are only a small handful of people on either world that would be a match for you. Unfortunately, the Obsidian Star does have at least a few of them. In time, even if you never gain that 'killer instinct', your genius and your tactics, especially, will help you overcome that crutch through sheer numbers (stats, basically). But in the coming fight...there's definitely a limit to how far you can go."

Kain again carefully considered the words. "And what...would my father think about this?"

Aiden laughed. "That's your main concern, huh? Well, I guess I can't blame you. Kalan...as I said, he was frighteningly practical about everything. He was monstrously strong, but he would never sacrifice himself so easily. He'd find some other way if he possibly could, and he'd never let anyone around him sacrifice their life either, not if there was any way he could stop it. Life—the life of those deserving, anyway—was the most important thing to him. I doubt he would have made this choice...he would bet his own strength on it, and, being Kalan, he likely would have won. But, you aren't him, are you? You need to make your own choice...that's what he would have wanted, for sure. But don't make that choice right now. Work on your _kata_ some and think long and hard about this. Then, whatever you decide, I'll support you as best I can...I owe your father, and you, at least that much."

8-8-8

Chisame took a bath in the oasis water (a section Aiden had prepared for that purpose closed off from the rest of his little training spot here), and, returning, found Aiden waiting for her. "Kain's got enough to deal with, so if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you. I have a general idea of your situation, but I'd like the details...just what's happened to Kain since you arrived in Arcanus Myrror?"

Chisame gave a rather condensed version of their situation while the two shared drinks, away from the musing Kain. "I see...thanks to that incident, your comrades are scattered throughout the world, and you don't really have a clue where they are, huh? Well, Kain's idea of attracting everyone's attention was a good one. You all should be able to meet up at Orimus, and Kain and his buddy should be more than capable of making the qualifier from this tournament season here at Granicus..."

"Yes...but it isn't that simple," Chisame sighed. "The point is, Kain- _sensei_ feels he has to take all the responsibility for this upon himself."

"All of it? Why?"

"It's his 'quest', or so he says. He decided he was going to find his father, no matter what, and for a while he wanted to keep all of us out of it. Eventually he decided to accept our help and even asked us to come with him...but this unforeseen disaster came because of his own selfish desires, putting everyone in terrible danger. That's how he sees it, anyway."

Aiden shook his head. "Yeah, that's tough. He's much more serious than Kalan in that way..."

"Yeah, well, whatever. His obsession is protecting everyone, being strong enough to protect everyone...it's more than just selflessness, it's like he's paying for his sins or something. Personally, I can only think he's overdoing it, going overboard with this whole thought train."

"You've thought a lot about all of this," Aiden noted with a small smile.

"Uh, well, not really," Chisame denied, reddening and looking away. "In any case, it's certain that he wants to get stronger. I guess that's natural for a boy like him, after all."

"I see. So I think I get what you're trying to say, Chisame. That kid is just a pain in the ass, right? But I think that makes it worth it to train him."

"I-I guess that's true...pain in the...but really, are you going to train him, or kill him?"

"Um...Aiden?"

The two turned as Kain approached. "I have been giving it some thought...and I was wondering...is this really the only way to power? This all-or-nothing death gambit?"

"Not at all," Aiden said. "But it might be the only suitable one for your personality. It would seem, from what Kamo's said, that you have plenty of powerful friends and companions. You could say that there're two paths ahead for you—a path of light, and a path of darkness. On the path of light, you combine your strength with that of your comrades, relying on them. There's no reason to put everything upon yourself...Kalan still has plenty of allies here on Arcanus Myrror, and some way or other there are more back on Earth who are willing and able to help out. You haven't met them yet, but powerful warriors and mages and whole armies are on your side when it comes to fighting your father's enemy, the Obsidian Star. Me, too, if it comes down to the real nitty-gritty...I'm getting old, and I'd rather leave it to the younger generation, but you can bet that if it comes down to my own survival, I'm not gonna sit around and do nothing. It's a little arrogant of you to think it's all up to you... In any case, although I said it might have been impossible, the truth is that in five or ten years you'd probably be the equal of the strongest of us.

"But on the other hand, if you want to use that arrogance, you can walk the path of darkness. Relying on your pride, you'll sacrifice anything for power, to ensure that you can do your part, to ensure that you will be able to defeat your enemies yourself. It means you'll do anything to protect those important to you, putting your trust in yourself most of all, rather than them. Since you're wondering, Kalan's path was more the first one...he did what he knew he could do, and he was blessed to be strong enough to make it work. But your path is up to you.

"Now, I know you're not quite ready to make your final decision yet. Back to training with you!"

8-8-8

The next morning Kain stood on the edge of the ruined parapet, doing his _kata_ , still thinking about what he had heard yesterday. _('Father's path…his path, the path of light, or the path of darkness, you could perhaps call it Alyssa's path, the path of arrogance, and a selfish desire for power. It's certainly true…Mai, Momo, Hinagiku, Erika, Akari, Kiami, Lina…Kenjirô too, and others…they're all strong. Together, we can do it…with the help of people like Avalon, we can do it…but….')_

"Training your _kenpo_ this early in the morning, even after all you did yesterday?" Chisame demanded, startling him.

"For someone as monstrously strong as you, is _kenpo_ really all that useful?" she continued as he turned to her. "Will it help you beat an Aegis missile cruiser?"

"Ah…well…actually, power doesn't mean anything if you can't hit. Even if they seem ridiculously far apart, martial arts can give the techniques that will mean the edge against other powerful opponents."

"Hmm, I see…well, it's not like I know anything about fighting anyway. Whatever. In any case, are you still thinking about what Aiden- _san_ said yesterday? About those 'paths' of light and darkness or what-have-you? You still haven't decided?"

"Well…."

Chisame sighed and took off her glasses. "You really are such a difficult person, _Sensei_. I know you've already made your decision, after all…you just always think too much and second-guess yourself. But in the end, your heart's already set on it." She glanced up at him and smiled. "As always, such a reckless decision, but then again, any path may look reckless at this point. Regardless, I'm here to watch over you, so I'll support you, no matter what, for what it's worth…."

Kain sighed and glanced away. "Yeah…I'm sorry, Chisame…in the end, this choice might be absurd…."

Chisame sighed again, but kept her smile. "With that again, _Sensei_. Regardless, we won't know if it's right or wrong until afterward. The most important thing is, if it's your decision, if it's the road you've chosen on your own, then you have to take your own steps on that path without looking back."

Kain stared at the girl, then nodded. "You're right. This is my decision. Thank you, Chisame."

8-8-8

Aiden was sitting at his table, several of his guns laid out, and was in process of cleaning them. Kamo, who had been in and out intermittently, checking on the group still back at Granicus, was now sitting on the table, looking on as Kain approached with Chisame flanking him. Aiden glanced up. "So…have you made your decision then on how we're going to proceed?"

Kain nodded and smiled. Drawing in a deep breath, glancing back at Chisame, who smiled, a small but reassuring smile, he finally said, "Yes. Everything you said is absolutely right…looking at everything, there's no need to concern myself with everything, take the whole burden of this war with the Obsidian Star and my friends' safety upon my shoulders."

 _('I see,')_ Aiden thought. _('So, he's choosing the safe path after all, putting his trust in those around him. I suppose that's only to be expected for a quiet kid like him….')_

"Still," Kain continued, "that isn't enough for me. More than wanting to safeguard and protect my friends and students, what I really want…what I've always wanted…was to walk alongside my father. To be able to live up to that momentous name. In five or ten years, it won't matter if I reach that point…what matters is being there now, when it's most important. Arrogance and pride…perhaps so. And my pride won't allow me to back down now." He stared hard at Aiden. "Give me your worst, Aiden. Whatever it will take to bring me to that level—the path of darkness or whatever—let's do it. I will face the Obsidian Star as an equal, no matter what it takes."

Aiden stared at Kain in surprise. Then a small smile crept over his face. "You were right, Kamo," he chuckled. "This kid really is interesting. Very well, then." He turned his attention back to the gun in his hands, a large-caliber revolver, carefully loaded it, and cocked the chamber back into place. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Then he turned the gun on Kain and fired.

Kain stared in shock as the shot hit him right in his heart, and then he toppled over backward, his open eyes staring at the sky.

"Kain- _sensei_!" Chisame rushed over to the young man. "What the hell was that, you bastard!? Are you really intending to kill him!? That was…!"

"Calm down, little lady," Aiden chuckled. "It's not time to panic yet. I didn't shoot him with a bullet—look at his chest. There's no wound there."

Surprised, Chisame did so, and saw that, indeed, there was no mark that anything had hit him at all. No blood, no hole, no apparent wound, no bruise underneath his shirt, no sign that anything untoward had happened to him. "W-what is this? What did you shoot him with?"

"Nothing that will kill him," Aiden assured her. Kain suddenly gasped and spat up blood, shocking Chisame. "Well…at least not immediately. It was pure mana…a solid piece of magic, prepared as part of an ancient experiment. Legends tell of men who became immersed in mana and were changed into something else, something more than human…nearly Celestial. However, it's virtually impossible to find enough pure mana to immerse someone…even here on Arcanus Myrror. So the ancient empire of Takiva developed this, a concentrated mass of mana, and infused it into select individuals. Theoretically, it can cause the same change in the test subject…if that man can accept the mana and adapt to the change. However, there are no recorded cases of it ever succeeding.

"Still, if it works, it's just what Kain's been looking for. Reinforcing his body, enhancing it, with pure mana will, among other things, make his True _Kanka_ variant work without damaging him…his body will be able to endure the stress of that flow through his body, and it will be stronger, too. But it's definitely a gamble. It's really surprising that he chose this way."

"We should get him inside to bed," Kamo insisted, hopping down next to him. "This will go on for a while, for good or ill. Might as well make his body as comfortable as it can be in the meantime…."

8-8-8

Kain looked around. He was…somewhere odd. There were odd-shaped buildings, most with a rather futuristic, sci-fi feel to them. The sky overhead was completely black, with no hint of stars or light, and yet everything around him was visible. "Where…am I?" he muttered to himself, trying to make sense of this. One moment, Aiden had shot him…and now, he was…. "Am I really…dead…?"

A mass of lights suddenly appeared, catching his attention. He turned to watch them settle and coalesce near him, forming a silhouette of a humanoid. Then the silhouette transformed into a familiar figure.

"L-Lina!?"

Lina stared at him with a blank expression, quite the opposite of her usual emotional and, well, vibrant expression. It seemed far closer to that of one of his students….

"It is human," Lina said in a monotone. "It is masterful…but it does not…understand…."

"W-what? What do you…?"

Suddenly Lina wasn't there any more, and as the new figure began to speak, he whirled around to stare at Nodoka, now standing behind him with that same blank expression on her face, speaking in that same emotionless manner. "Who are you?"

Kain hesitated. "I am Kain Lockeheart, the son of Kalan Lockeheart."

"Kain Lockeheart," Kagome said, now in place of Nodoka and in a different position relative to Kain. "A personal name for this organism? Son of Kalan Lockeheart…a title…denoting blood ties. The seed, the offspring of another individual. An importance attached to this relationship?"

"What are you?" Kain demanded. "You aren't…my friends…."

"These forms we take in order to communicate with you," Momo informed him from the entity's original position. "We do not have form or substance as you perceive it. Here, within your world, we can perceive your thought patterns…memories…these are individuals who stand out in your mind."

"My world…you mean, we're in…my soul?" Kain asked in awe.

"Unknown. The definition of soul, even within your own mind, is cast in doubt," Takamichi told him. "Yet perhaps this definition will suffice. We are, as you understand it, mana, or magic."

"Mana…so…if you're mana, then you're like…Kamo, right?"

"The subject: Kamolai," stated Erika. "A spirit of magic. That is approximately correct. When magic aggregates into a sufficient, concentrated pool, it becomes sentient, develops sapience, begins to understand mortal creatures. However, there are some 'native creatures' even within the realm of mana. Creatures such as Kamolai are more this sort…yet all are born from the same source, the dimension of our home, the realm of pure magic, from which all mana flows."

"But…how did you…no, how did we get here? Within my soul?"

Now the speaker was Hinagiku. "We were forced into you. Now mana is inside of you, in a state of war with your body. We entered the realm of your consciousness, your 'soul', so that we could communicate with you. Now that we are inside of you, your body is rejecting us, perceiving us to be a foreign invader. We have no recourse but to become a part of you, or to tear your body apart in order to make our escape. Such departure will likely be…fatal."

Kain stared hard at the girl. "If you can't become a part of me…I'll die?" he repeated. "How can I…make you a part of me?"

"Your understanding of magic is broad for a mortal, but incomplete," Kenjirô informed him. "Until you fully understand magic, you cannot accept us, and without accepting us, you cannot make us a part of you. You must come to understand, or you have no hope."

"Understand," Kain murmured. "How…do I do that, then?"

Mai was now standing right in front of him. "Unknown. Your mind is difficult to fully perceive—it changes, fluctuates, hides. It acts like a nonsapient, a beast of prey, not allowing us to fully perceive your thoughts. Because of this, we cannot understand each other. Until that barrier is broken and we understand, we cannot become part of you. Your only hope of survival is to rid yourself of this barrier."

Kain shook his head. "Easy to say, but…how can I do that?"

Mai remained this time instead of changing into a new individual. She strode to stand right in front of Kain. "You must cast it aside. We do not understand sufficiently to inform you how this may be accomplished. All we can do is show you the form that is at the heart of this barrier, the symbol of your negative and restrictive thoughts." She raised a hand and gripped Kain's forehead. He felt a surge running through his brain, something invading deep inside of him, and the vision before his eyes went black…and a moment later, his sight returned, and there, in front of him, clad in a white cloak and holding a small katana, was Kalan Lockeheart.

"D-Dad…?"

Kalan raised his sword at Kain. "This is your greatest fear, isn't it? Of losing to me. Well, then…show me what you've got. Match me, if you can."

He charged at Kain, swinging. Kain pulled his own sword from his cloak and blocked the attack, but the force of Kalan's swing sent him flying all the same. He managed to right himself in the air with magic and stared down at his father as the older man prepared to charge. "W-what is this?"

"You heard, didn't you? I am the symbol of your despair, your fears, your doubts, of all your faults…brought forth by the mana that has invaded your body, I am what's holding you back. In order to move forward, in order to live up to your grandiose claims, in order to accept the mana into your body and let it change you…you have to accept me." Kalan crouched and sprang into the air after Kain. Once again, a strike sent him flying, crashing through the buildings below.

8-8-8

Inside the ruined tower, the most complete building of these ruins at the oasis that served as Aiden's base, Kain lay on the cot that had been made his bed. His eyes were closed, now, and he writhed under the influence of a terrible fever. His hand subconsciously went to his chest, gripping it desperately.

"Dammit, his fever won't go down," Chisame muttered, laying a moist cloth across his brow. "Jeez, I've already had enough of this from before. At this rate, it won't matter if I do anything or not." She turned to Aiden, who was standing in the doorway. "Oi, what's going on with him now? Is he really going to be okay?"

"It's natural for a body to reject foreign matter that enters it," Aiden instructed her matter-of-factly. "His body is wrestling with the magic inside of him. Normally magic is benign to humans in its natural state, but it has enough understanding to defend itself against something that is trying to attack it. If Kain can learn to absorb it into his body, he'll have passed this test and gotten his level up. If not, then the magic will tear his body apart in order to escape. He _will_ die...or, at the very least, he will lose the ability to use his magic forever, all his magic circuits burned out of him."

"T-that's a pretty harsh result, you know!"

"I know. And I warned both of you about it repeatedly. The odds aren't in his favor. But," Aiden continued, actually smiling, "if there was anyone who could understand magic enough to take it into him like this, I would bet on Kalan. And even after just the short time I've known him, I'd say Kain is easily in second place for that distinction. Believe in him, Chisame. It's all you can do."

Suddenly Kain spurted more blood from his mouth. Wounds appeared across his body, casting up blood. "W-what!?" Chisame barked, aghast. "This isn't...just all in his head or something!?"

"Well, like I said, his body's natural immune system and the magic inside him are at war." Aiden shook his head. "Still, this does look worse than I thought..."

"H-hey, _Sensei_ , are you all right!? Hang in there!" Chisame pleaded with the comatose boy.

"Well, we can at least do this much." Aiden reached into his satchel and pulled out a collection of leaves. "Ultimacea leaves! A powerful and rare magical plant, and a necessary ingredient for high-level healing potions, including regeneration and youth potions." He handed a pile over to Chisame. "Here, crush them up and brush them over his wounds. That should keep him alive for a good while longer."

"W-what!? W-why me!?"

"Because you're the one looking out for him, aren't you? His baby-sitter, or whatever you want to call yourself? Besides, the one who pushed him into this decision was ultimately you, little lady."

Chisame stared at the man almost like a frightened rabbit, her lip curling up, but no denial issued from her lips. Finally, striving to maintain what little dignity she had left, she stood up and snatched the leaves from Aiden's hand. "H-hmph! I-I mean, I know you talked about that, and it was a big decision, but still! I just knew this brat wouldn't be happy unless he did what he had to do, you know? Death...shouldn't _really_ enter into it..."

"You're too naïve. Despite everything I said, you still thought it would be simple and easy? A man's choices are always about life and death."

Chisame stared at the man. "And if he's the son of your best friend, why were you encouraging him!? If it's that bad, why even offer it!? It really seems like you want to get him killed!"

Aiden chuckled. "The son of my best friend should be a man capable of going through with this. Kalan may hate me for it, hell, he may kill me for it, but if Kain dies, then he wasn't meant to be here in the first place. I left it to his decision, I told him all the risks, I made it clear...and he decided to risk his own life, walk willingly into a possible death trap, in order to stand next to his father. At that point, it's on his head.

"Still, it's not all bad. Dying's not really the end. Maybe he'll become a _shinigami_ , and come back stronger than ever."

Chisame shook her head, still working on the medications. "Sorry, but I can't stand all that kind of fantasy bullcrap talk. It's not my world, and it's not a world I want to understand, either. In the real world, you never run the risk of really dying in moments like this."

Aiden chuckled. "You really think so? They're more alike than you think. I've spent enough time over there, you know...I'm originally from Earth, although my family's roots begin here. I've seen enough of it to know: outside of the ivory towers of people from civilized nations like yours, life is very cheap, maybe even cheaper than here. And regardless of the world, one thing is certain: nothing worthwhile comes without risk."

"Even so, the risk of dying is much more serious than any other, you know!" Chisame shot back.

"You're really worried about him dying, aren't you?" As Chisame stuttered and tried to deny the words, Aiden reached into his satchel and pulled out an exquisite dagger with a straight, double-edged blade, a wide wing-like guard and an eye-like jewel in the center of it. "Here...this should do it. If you really are afraid of him dying, you can prevent it with this. Just stab him with this dagger, and it will draw out the magic inside of him. Of course, it will also destroy his own magic, burning out his magic circuits, but it _will_ save his life. He has about three days before his body completely succumbs to the magic, even with these herbs. If you want to save him before that time, stab his heart with this."

Chisame recoiled from it. "A-are you kidding!? Regardless of the magic of the situation, I can't accept stabbing him! I could never stab my own teacher like that, regardless of what you say it will do!"

Aiden sighed. "Oh, that's right. Not only are you a 'normal middle school girl', you're one clinging to that identity. Well, fine then...this, at least, should be something you can do." He removed a scroll from his satchel and placed it on the table next to Chisame along with the knife. He then chanted some arcane words and waved his hand over the scroll. Chisame could have sworn she saw a visible connection appear between Kain and the scroll.

"There," Aiden said. "That will do it. I've connected that scroll to him. Just stab it, thrust the knife into it, and the same thing will happen...Kain will lose his ability to use magic forever, but at least he'll be alive."

Chisame kept her harsh glare on the man. He returned her stare with a blank expression, which quirked up into a small smile, but he said nothing more. _('...I have to choose?')_ Chisame thought despairingly.

8-8-8

Kain flew in the air over the strange battlefield, staring at his near-twin, the image of his father. Kain was breathing heavily and wounds covered his body. He gritted his teeth. "You're not my father!" he shouted at the man. "You're just using his face!"

"Of course I'm not your father," the man replied with a strange venom in his own voice. "Obviously. I'm you, or, rather, a dark part of your psyche, given form and power within this realm by the magic that has invaded your body, and given this appearance by your own fears and doubts."

Kalan charged in again. "But that isn't what you should be worrying about. If you really want to stay alive, then focus on not dying!"

He dodged past Kain's hasty counterattack, then grabbed him by the face and threw him hard to the ground. "But that's the biggest problem, isn't it?" Kalan called after him. "Death, and dying! He told you it was poison. He told you that you would have to die. He warned you again and again, and even with all the outs he gave you, you asked for it. You demanded it. Why were you so willing to flirt with death?"

As Kain struggled to pick himself up, Kalan appeared in front of him again. His blade came up and over and across repeatedly, too fast for Kain to stop. "Arrogance and pride! Did you really believe that you were strong enough to withstand it? Did you believe yourself a blessed child, a 'destined' child, and that you couldn't die? Did you think yourself already immortal? No, it's more than that, isn't it?"

Kalan retreated a pace and stared at Kain with a hard, cold smile. "No, the truth is…the reason why the talk of death just passed through your ears without stopping…is that you really don't care if you die. Despite your talents, despite your abilities, despite everything you have, you are simply afraid. Aiden's declaration that your allies had enough strength to support and uphold you should have convinced you to turn away, but it did the opposite. Instead of prompting you to entrust yourself to them and strive to do what you could with your own power, it convinced you that it would be all right if you died. That's what you really want, in truth. The quiet of the grave will save you from any further efforts, from any further fears. You're afraid that you'll never reach your father, never live up to his image and his legacy, never be his equal. You're afraid you'll never stand up to his enemy, never defeat Pakrov Eminus, never overcome the Obsidian Star. You're afraid of letting your feelings for all those girls around you out, afraid of rejecting any of them, afraid of accepting them. All these fears weigh you down in the deepest reaches of your heart. But if you died…all of that would be over. You wouldn't have to worry about any of it anymore. Those girls vainly pursuing you would be left free to find other lovers. Those enemies would be defeated by your father's remaining allies, even, perhaps, by your students, motivated to greater heights by your death, even. You would be free of the comparisons and connections to your father. Yes, death is a freedom a part of you desperately wants to accept.

"Look around you, at this world, cloaked in darkness, a world covered by fear. This is your heart. It's a wonder you ever wanted to be like Kalan Lockeheart." He shook his head. "No, contrary to me not being your father…we should say: you are not my son!"

He charged in again, and Kain desperately met the assault. _('H-he's right…and I have no chance of winning here. This man is my own psychology, my belief in my father's awe-inspiring power…he's just as strong as I think he should be. And, whatever I do, even with my_ kanka _, he's far stronger than I could ever be….')_

8-8-8

Kain spat up blood and fountained a new wound. "Ack! Again!? Old man, I need more of those medical plants! I'm out!"

Chuckling, Aiden handed them over. "Still, I'm surprised at you, Chisame. You've been tending to him without rest for two full days now..."

"I can't help it, can I!?" she snapped back. "If something happens to him, it's half my fault too, right!? I couldn't face Tokiha and the rest if I let something happen to him!"

"Is that how it is? Well, let me share a secret with you, Chisame." She glanced up at him in surprise as his voice lowered, grew quieter. "He's in rough shape now, but ultimately this decision of his was the easier path for him to take. It is far easier to face the prospect of death for a moment than to deal with the demons of having let down your friends for a lifetime. Kain knows that feeling very well. It's just as you said—he pushes himself, because he's trying to make up for the mistakes of his past, of letting down his comrades and students and putting them in this danger. And you're feeling the same thing right now, aren't you? You're afraid that you've let him down, too, pushing him into this, even though his mind was already made up. That...is the worst of it. And that's why I let him make this life-threatening decision. Because in the end it's kinder to him than forcing him to remain a bit player in this drama."

Aiden's smile faded. "Still, this is a bad place. It's not just physically...he should be close to his limit mentally, too. In his mind, he's inside a kind of 'Reality Marble' or 'phantasmagoria' made by his own psyche—I know what it's like, because I went through something similar in one of my adventurers. In his mind, it's probably been at least ten days, and whatever demons he has there fighting him, they certainly aren't letting him stop and rest, either. Normally, you'd lose your sanity before now. He's amazing, having held on this long."

"T-ten days?" Chisame muttered, too tired to be more than startled by this. "So..."

"That's right...just as I said, any longer, and he'll die. The limit's daybreak tomorrow...some hours left...you should really make your decision too, eh, Chisame?"

He nodded his head towards the table with dagger thrust into it next to the scroll, and, leaving another pile of herbs, he stood, turned, and left.

Chisame looked back at Kain, all the thoughts broiling in her head. _('Sensei_... _')_

8-8-8

Kalan stared at Kain, disheveled, panting, bloodied, eyes wide with the effort of remaining conscious and cognizant. "…How long has it been now? A week? More? How many times have I put you down? Eighty? Ninety? Or is it an even hundred?"

Kain gasped, swallowed, and smiled grimly at his foe. "But…it's proof, isn't it…that I'm not ready to give up yet? That, despite my fears, I'm not quite ready to die?"

Kalan chuckled. "That is true. Let's see if that resolve lasts another go-round."

He exploded at Kain. Kain retreated into the air. He set himself and unleashed another horde of missiles at his foe. Kalan dodged around them and then vanished. Kain whirled around to block the strike that came from behind, but Kalan snapped the fingers of his left hand and a bolt of lightning crashed down from above, spearing Kain and dropping him back down into the ground.

Kain managed to get up by the time his pseudo-father arrived, but he couldn't block the kick that sent him flying. Kalan arrived at his destination before the boy himself did, grabbing his younger variant and slamming him hard into the ground.

Kalan put a foot on Kain's chest and leaned down, putting an arm across his knee. He looked down into the empty eyes of the young man. "Is that it, then? Is this as far as you could go? Well, it's a shame, but that's life, isn't it? Farewell, kid. Been nice knowing you."

He turned around and began to walk away. Kain lay there, his mind finally broken, nothing in his thoughts except the never-ending pain and torment. And then, suddenly, through the haze, after a moment or perhaps a lifetime, he felt something…something different, something that was alien in this world of his dreams and nightmares.

He opened his eyes and turned towards the location of this disturbance…and saw, standing there, Yuki Nagato. She was dressed in her usual school uniform, and stared down at him with that blank expression, that never-changing inhuman face, beautiful for its doll-like inability to express itself. "What are you doing?" Yuki asked him.

Kain was too far gone to contemplate what she was doing there, if it was her or yet another illusionary form of the magical thing inside of him. "I'm…fighting…for my life…."

"Why? What purpose is served by fighting?" Yuki demanded in her expressionless voice.

 _('Why? To…survive….')_ "…Because I want to live…."

"That is not enough. That is not the intended purpose of this exercise. Think back…to who you are…and why you have come here."

 _('_ … _Why I've come? I'm here…because….')_

Because you wanted power.

Because you didn't want to see your friends and comrades die.

Because you never wanted to lose anyone ever again.

No personage spoke these words…they came to Kain as if by the wind. But, he realized, they were the truth. Arousing his faculties, he stared at Yuki again. Why her? The quietest, most innocuous member of his class….

The most mysterious of all….

"I understand," he whispered. "Of course, I understand. That's what you are…and that's the secret…."

8-8-8

Chisame stared at Kain, irritated beyond her capacity to endure, tapping her foot repeatedly. He was better, now, somewhat—not fountaining blood anymore, not writhing in agony, although he remained unconscious with a high fever. She cursed. "Still not done, _Sensei_?" she demanded of the still boy.

She stood and glanced out the window behind her. "We're out of time," she muttered. "The sun's started to rise."

She recalled Aiden's admonition to her. "Dammit!" she screamed. "Why does it have to be _my_ responsibility? Why do I have to make this decision?"

She turned and snatched up the knife and scroll, and prepared to take the plunge. "Time's up, _Sensei_!" _('If I don't stop the trial now, he won't ever wake up again...it's all over...')_ Then she gritted her teeth and cast them aside. "No! I just can't do it! Even if I cancel it now with that knife, it doesn't solve everything! You'll still lose all your magical power...you'd become nothing more than an ordinary person. But...for you, that might be worse than dying, right?"

 _('That's right...it's best if you overcome this trial on your own. That's the only real solution. Come on,_ Sensei _, wake up! Don't tell me that your determination is only going to take you this far!')_

She shook her head and then slapped the side of it with her hands. "Ugh! C'mon, Hasegawa Chisame, get a grip! This is real life, here! You have to make a decision!"

Her glasses fell off of her head with this action and onto Kain's sleeping form. She softly picked them up and leaned forward, laying her elbows on the young man's covering but not yet replacing her spectacles. "...Hey...you know, _Sensei_...you...have always treated me with a certain amount of respect...no, it's more like, you act as if you have faith in me. And that's a big deal to me, because...I've always lived my life like an onlooker, just an NPC, someone who doesn't mean anything in the grand story. In class...at home...I was always that character, and...I thought that was okay... Well, I still do. That's how I live my life, and how I'll continue to live in the future.

"God, to think I pushed you into this with all that grandiose talk of sticking to your decisions and manning up and such. And now that I'm stuck like this, all I can do is tremble and hope some miracle happens. I guess it's just like that old man said...a lifetime of feeling you've failed the people most important to you...could be worse than a few moments of fearing for your life...despicable me.

"But still, you _did_ move forward, believing in that advice I gave you. In that case, I'll decide as well. I believe in you...I'll believe in you until the very end." She rose and reached out, taking Kain's unresisting hand in hers. "I can't help but believe in you, _Sensei_. I know you can do this!"

8-8-8

Kalan turned around as Kain rose once again unsteadily to his feet, his sword in his hand. Kalan chuckled and readied himself once more. "So you have one more life before 'game over', eh? Very well, then…here I come!"

Kain stared at the man as he charged…and let the sword fall from his hand. He let Kalan's blade pierce him. He convulsed under the shock, but didn't gasp in pain or fall. "How strange," he murmured. "No pain…."

Kalan looked at his very close face in surprise. "Not even dodging, now? Have you really given up?"

"…Given up? Given up what? I've…given up being an idiot. This was never…a test of my strength…my power. Trying to match myself…my dark thoughts…my impressions of my father…that was really stupid. I was caught up in all my fears, just like you said. And maybe I…really did believe that I could just die. But…just like I was too stubborn to die…I was too stubborn to….do what I really needed…what I really _wanted_ …which was to accept magic, like I was told.

"Fighting you took precedence for me, but why? How did fighting you help me understand magic? Accept it into my heart? I was so afraid…even now, I'm afraid…of changing, of losing myself, of losing the things that are dear to me, of becoming something to be hated. But…those are the risks people take…just by living.

"I understand. And that's why this sword doesn't hurt, isn't it? My own self can't hurt me, not if I understand and accept myself. And this magic won't hurt me…if I understand and accept it. And I finally do. I thought I knew all about magic…about mana…about this power…but I knew nothing. You can't understand something entirely if you only observe from the outside. Here it is, now, within me…the secret…to how it all works…."

8-8-8

The light from the rising sun began to fill the room, and Chisame turned back to stare at it in fright. _('But...what if you really never wake up again? And that it was my fault your entire life was destroyed? What would I tell Tokiha and the others? ...Or your uncle in Wyoming, or your childhood friend? And...more than that...you're still a fourteen-year-old kid, just a few months older than me. In this case...')_

The images of Kain began to run through her head. That wide-eyed innocent look from early in the year. "Hasegawa- _san_!"

The more adapted teacher, delighting in his new internet idol. "Chiu- _san_!"

The man who had become her partner in desperation, and still resolved himself to aiding her. "Chisame!"

Tears began to flow from her eyes at the thought of that cheerful man being gone. Then she sprang up, snatching up the dagger again, closing her hand on the scroll, throwing the parchment on the table and raising the blade up, preparing to stab. _('I'm sorry,_ Sensei _...I'm sorry, I just can't do it!')_

She brought the knife down with all her force, her eyes closed. _('I'm sorry, Sensei...I just couldn't do it. I couldn't believe in you until the very end. But as long as you're alive...there are always other options...')_

There seemed to be something wrong with her perception of reality, however, and opened her eyes to get a better look at the situation. There, mere centimeters from the scroll, the blade had been stopped dead, held rigid between two fingers. She glanced up in shock at the slightly-smiling face of Kain. Blood was still running from the right side of his mouth. His shirt and cloak had long ago been discarded so that his torso and arms could be wrapped in bandages to cover the wounds that had run rampant across his body. He looked like he'd been through all seven levels of hell, but, as he slowly pulled the knife from Chisame's grip, still holding its blade in those two fingers, he softly said, "Good morning, Chisame. I'm all right now."

Chisame's tears began to flow, but, before she burst out crying, she remembered herself, flushed with embarrassment, and turned her head away, covering her face with one hand. "E-er...are you all right, Chisame?" Kain asked carefully.

"Wa...no, I'm not...i-it's nothing..."

And then she suddenly grabbed a pillow from off the bed and began to assault Kain with it. "Jeez! If you're going to wake up, be quick about it, you idiot! You waited until the last possible second to wake up, as if you'd made an appointment or something! You're just trying to put me through hell, aren't you!?"

Kain yelped and protested as Chisame chased him around the chamber, flailing at him with the pillow. Aiden came strolling in to watch this scene. "Oh, you're awake, Kid! Good job!"

Chisame turned to glare at Aiden, her tired face still flushed and her eyes still moist, throwing the pillow directly at Kain one last time for good measure. "Aiden!" Kain said happily, mostly ignoring the missile.

Aiden considered the pair carefully, particularly Chisame. "Hmm...hmm?"

" _What_ , _O-san_?" Chisame said scathingly. "What's with that reaction?" She scooped up another pillow and turned her wrath on Aiden. "You made me wait three days in this carnage just to see whether he'd live or die!"

"Oh, c'mon!" Aiden laughed, retreating gaily from the attacks. "What normal person wouldn't shed a tear or two when they found out he was safe?" He grabbed her wrist on the next assault and turned a smile on Kain. "Make sure you thank the little lady, Kain. Chisame has been nursing you on your deathbed for two whole days and nights, without any rest of her own."

Kain stared at her in surprise. "...Chisame did? Thank y—"

Chisame suddenly came free of Aiden's grasp and turned her wrath on Kain again. "Shut up! Don't think you can make up for all of this with just a simple thank you! Get on your knees! You're my servant now!"

Aiden laughed at this scene and then attracted their attention. "In any case, well done, Kid! You're at the starting line now. But don't relax yet...now that you've survived your transformation, you have to hone your new power and body into a killing machine. Are you ready?"

"Yes!" Kain insisted. "I'm ready to start anytime!"

Aiden nodded. "Okay then, follow me! Let's get started on this!"

"Right!" Kain started to follow Aiden out.

"W-wait a minute!" Chisame insisted. "Is it really all right to get started immediately?"

Kain stopped and turned back to her. "Um...Chisame..."

"W-what? Yeah?"

"Thank you for everything...really." Kain gave her a small, almost sad, but quite earnest smile.

Chisame, disgruntled, tried to keep her emotions in check. "Um, no...there's no need to thank...

"W-wait a minute! What am I saying!? Seriously, you guys, he's in no condition to start training now after all that! And don't you _dare_ suggest that what he's been doing for three days is sleeping...!"

Kamo appeared on a ruined wall and watched them, chuckling. "Well done, Kiddo...I knew you had it in you...after all, I know what you're capable of better than anyone..."

F I N

 _Author's Note: Character Introduction: Aiden Rylack_

 _And here we finally are! Kain goes through his trial to level up, a grueling mental struggle that tests the wills of both Kain and Chisame._

 _In the original, Jack Rakan had access to a secret magical power-up technique originally developed by Eva, a dark magic where the user creates and absorbs powerful attack spells in order to boost his physical abilities. In order to prove able to use it, he had to endure a phantasmagoria similar to what Kain was in, but much more intense...he had to prove himself by battling the essentially full-power version of Eva herself. As shown here, Chisame was forced to care for him over the three days (essentially two full days and nights)._

 _As neat as this 'Erebia' magic was, it wasn't the route I wanted to go with Kain. Among other things, the origin of it just doesn't quite match up with how I had Eva's replacement, Alyssa, working things. Also, the thought of Kain doing truly 'dark' magic of his own free will just didn't fly._

 _In addition, this particular power-up is one I've been quite proud of since I first introduced it in 'The Anime Story'—the ascension to near-immortality via the process of actually changing the human into a truly magical creature, a magical evolution or mutation, if you will. This trait package includes Fast or Instant Regeneration, Regrowth, Unaging, Immunity to Disease and Poison, and a nearly unlimited mana pool, to put it in easy-to-understand GURPS terms. The beings of power who observed humans in this evolved state referred to them as 'Winged Ones' for reasons that will become apparent later on. Kain is now at this level...a place where, as we will see, he is a match for any of the powers in this world. Circumstances can vary things, but at this point, no one is overwhelmingly more powerful than he is..._

 _As I mentioned, I've used this power-up before in degrees…I create various kinds of connections with all my stories, essentially all stories and all universes, in my head. The plane of 'true mana' and all that we keep mentioning here is the 'MageSpace' of the Magiverse—a universe that is quite literally filled with nothing but mana. Mana leaks into all universes from this place, and while it can be poison to degrees, as a bullet of it was to Kain, the magic's sentience can work upon mortal bodies and essentially mutate them. Kain, as I mentioned, has now been mutated to a kind of immortal creature._

 _And so while originally a very strange double of Eva born from within the scroll challenged Negi and forced him to accept his darkness and learn what that meant, Kain had to face the sentience inherent in magic itself. Because of my experiences with it (and similar creatures—in anime and such, of course), I gave the 'personality' of magic a voice and vein similar to Paksis Pragma from Vandread (in fact, in the Magiverse the Paksis Pragma_ is _essentially a mass of this pure magic). It can enter the consciousness and communicate using the forms familiar to the 'victim', and as I said, it has similarities in other media, such as the 'Prophets' of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. So Kain's trial started that way…_

 _But then, for the life-and-death feel, drifted into Bleach, and became similar to several of the struggles Ichigo had with his_ zanpaku-tô _within his own soul. Kain likewise had to adapt himself to the situation to claim victory, overcoming his dark self—yeah, a cliché but useable trope. Of course, he had to have help…from a source that works well with this version of sentient magic…._

 _Now, Aiden Rylack is pretty much officially in the story. Aiden replaces Jack Rakan, the mercenary swordsman member of Ala Rubra and Nagi's biggest rival, the only man who could ever go toe-to-toe with him. He was full of faults, perverted and greedy, and was nonetheless quite amusing, but I wanted, as I mentioned back in Act 5, to use my own characters in place of the two old heroes most prominent in [Kain's] life. So I chose one best friend for Al's place and another for Rakan, and thus Aiden Rylack was the perfect character to throw into this part._

 _Aiden is one of the primary characters of my friend Ryan, an attempt (usually) as a fantasy archaeologist in the Indiana Jones mold (hence his obsession with the classic fedora hat). This Aiden, however, in a magic/science hybrid universe, is a much better excuse to use a magic guns repertoire of techniques and weapons. He can play the part of a sweet-talking, studious, gamy and colorful rogue while having interesting magical skills to back him up. He's about ten years older than Kalan, and was always somewhat intimidated by how practical, serious, and intense a mere kid could be, but he always greatly admired him. While he is a rogue in many ways, he's not the equal there of Jack Rakan, former slave gladiator, and he has his own code, particularly with regards to his friends and allies. He had just finally met a girl, gotten married, settled down, and fathered his own son when the 'crisis' struck fifteen years ago, and so Kalan and Jynx didn't call on him, and Aiden regrets that fact to this day._

 _He has a variety of powerful magical abilities, but I won't go into detail about them here—they will be properly presented soon enough. Unlike Jack Rakan, he is not the obvious number two to the hero power-wise, but, a confident and brash man, he often acts as if he was, and, in truth, his variety of powers and his proficiency with them make him a deadly foe, indeed, particularly to mages..._

 _The rest about him we'll learn as the story goes on. For now, let's get a move on to the next chapter...things are starting to heat up here!_


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter Two: Beloved Reunion

"Riku- _san_ and Kaoru- _san_ are all right?" Kain demanded excitedly. "That's great!"

"In Avalon," Kamo agreed smugly. "They're safer than anyone, that's for sure. We'll definitely be seeing them in Orimus, no problem."

"That leaves three we haven't heard from at all," Chisame remarked. "Hinamori, Ayase, and _Fukukaichô_. However," she added easily, clapping Kain comfortingly on the shoulder, "if it's those three, there's a very good chance they're doing just fine wherever they are, right?"

"T-that's true…."

"Hinamori," Aiden murmured with a chuckle. "If it's Momo, she's probably well off, too. She's probably in Soul Society."

"I'd say that's a good bet," Kamo agreed. "I can tell you through my power that her card and artifact, and therefore, her, are nowhere in this world. There's a very good chance, almost a certainty, that your students were sent, first and foremost, to any place connected to them. Momo certainly would have been drawn to the Soul Society."

"But if that's the case, why hasn't she contacted us?" Chisame demanded. "It's been almost two months…I don't know much how this Soul Society works, but to be silent that long…I heard she even sent letters there from the school (somehow or other…)."

"Because of the condition of this world," Kamo explained. "Cutting Arcanus Myrror off from Earth caused a time distortion between the magic world and the old world. Although two months have passed for us, less than a week has passed back on Earth. And Soul Society is actually connected more to Earth than Arcanus Myrror, so, in our perspective, only a few days have passed for them over all this time."

"Really? That would have been nice to know earlier," Chisame muttered. "Well, I guess it wouldn't make too much difference in our strategies, but at least it means our families back home won't be missing us yet."

"Right. In any case, even if they got Momo recovered quickly and prepared what they could, it would be longer than this before we'd hear from them. As for Yuecchi…something's up with her, but all I can say is that she's all right for now, wherever she is…I've felt her using her contract card recently, although it seemed cut off for a while before that." Kain stared at Kamo in shock, but the ermine continued, "Erika- _chan_ is the one I'm worried about. She has no contract card, and while she can handle herself, if she gets caught in a bad place…her dependency on blood, her status as a vampire, so many things can go wrong for her. But…on the other hand…at least there've been no news about a rampaging vampire, outlaw vampire being caught, or anything of the sort, and I've been checking everywhere for all those stories constantly, so there's definitely hope."

"Yeah…."

Aiden considered Kain for a moment, and then said, "Well, you can worry about it, Kain, but it won't do any good. They're your _nakama_ , right? Your comrades? You have to believe in them. Of course you're doing all this for their sakes…but you can't do anything for them now. All you can do is prepare yourself to help them when the opportunity comes. So, that means we need to get back to it. So, show us how you're doing. Activate your 'True _Kanka_ '."

"Right." Kain did so, swiftly, almost too naturally, and power began to flare off of him. His hair seemed to lighten, his eyes radiated visible energy, and an aurora radiated out from his shoulders. The air around crackled with energy and a clear sky almost seemed to be storming just from his presence.

"Nice, nice." Aiden nodded. "It's definitely a good start. You're more than ready to take care of your tournament…you need to head back to help your friend Kenjirô finish up your league."

"Right." Kain let the power go and smiled slightly. "I can't wait to see what he thinks of this…."

8-8-8

The giant rock floated through the skies over Kanev, a piece of the former floating land rendered a novelty by the disaster that had befallen it twenty years ago. Inside the massive rock, hidden with an entrance in one small black cave, was an iron-bound fortress. And within three figures of varying sizes considered the matter at hand.

"The magical currents will reach their full potential in three weeks' time," Dynamis grumbled. "Everything is on schedule…."

"Of course," replied Eminus. "That's the purpose for which we were made, after all. Still, I think being on schedule will be a bit boring…."

"Says the one who didn't lift a finger these past two months," Nagi chuckled. "There's been lots going on…and not everything in our favor." He turned to his left, where a shadowed body floated inside a giant tank of some amber liquid.

Suddenly there was a flash, and behind Eminus a figure appeared. "Good day, Eminus- _kun_ ," Kinue greeted him. "I have a report…the two princesses are almost to Orimus, along with their many bodyguards…."

"So, they've made it past the plethora of bounty hunters…" Eminus murmured. "Being wanted criminals is making their journey difficult. Despite the efforts Nagi engineered, there was no success in taking them, and that opportunity won't come again for a while. With security more lax at the Festival, we will have better opportunities then. While the Crystal Princess is no longer necessary, she will certainly be useful…and more than that. Keep up your surveillance."

Kinue sighed. "Ah…but I'd rather cut them up, not watch them…especially since it's so tough with Erika- _ojô-sama_ here right under my nose but beyond my reach."

"Enough. Put up with it for just a bit longer."

"Right." Kinue's expression became excited again. "Well, in any case, I have other news. It seems Kain- _kun_ completed his tournament alongside little Kenjirô- _kun_ , and they're heading to Orimus for the preliminaries of the Kalan Lockeheart Cup…and, furthermore, Kain- _kun_ has begun training under the tutelage of Aiden Rylack."

Dynamis raised his head and noticeably tensed, despite his heavy clothing. "Aiden…Rylack…."

"Is that okay?" Kinue asked carefully, some unfathomable emotion on her face. "At this rate, Kain- _kun_ may…."

"It's fine," Eminus replied. "With everything going so well right now…Kain- _kun_ 's the only fun I'll have. I'm really looking forward to our next meeting. After all…he's the only person…to ever hit my face twice…."

8-8-8

November 11th, 40 km east of Orimus. A flying airship, approaching the capital.

"Thanks for the lift, Dolphin- _san_ ," Hinagiku thanked the aquatic individual, a man (woman?) who really did look like a land-walking two-legged ocean mammal.

"Yeah, yeah…that isn't really my name, you know…."

Hinagiku apologized while the rest of the group stared out the window. "An island floating in the sky…I wonder what it'll be like…" Kagome murmured.

"Bah, what do you think?" Inuyasha grumped. "It's a floating island. Big deal."

"In any case, you girls need to make sure you keep a low profile," Kajirô murmured. "You're still wanted criminals, you know."

"Ah, c'mon, Kajirô- _kun_ , don't be so serious!" Mai scolded. "I mean, this will be a pretty big thing, you know? None of us are used to magic like this…."

"Well, even if it's a festival, it _will_ be dangerous if you girls are found out," Yoshimori agreed. "Just make sure you're in disguise by the time we land."

"Oh, I see it!" Shippô yelled excitedly. "There it is! The legendary floating capital of Orimus!"

It wasn't just a floating island…it was a collection of small landmasses hovering in the air, with mountains, forests, large sections of city, and even rivers and streams running through it and down off the side to create beautiful crashing waterfalls, and a lake in the middle of one of the larger landmasses. The girls all caught their breath, and even Inuyasha grunted a comment about it.

"Orimus' end-of-the-year Memorial Festival," Tokine narrated. "It starts on the 13th and then runs through December to New Year's. It's intended as a grand gathering of all nations and races, to meet together, mingle, interact, and pray for peace. It's the greatest festival of this world, held every year here in Orimus."

"And that barely scratches the surface," the dolphin pointed out. "Even if you say 'praying for peace', that doesn't mean it's a stiff and formal religious ceremony or anything. It's a time of enjoyment and thanksgiving, business and pleasure! They have a pretty huge emphasis on discouraging discrimination against race, gender, social status, nationality, religion, and all the rest. Because of that, there are merchants, mages, beastmen, elfin folk, young and old, male and female, even wanted men and rogues from all over the world. It's absolute chaos! You can't wave your identities around, but as long as you're circumspect you should be fine there.

"It has duels, gambling, games, businesses, vendors, and everything you could imagine. And that's all on a normal year. This year is the twentieth anniversary of the end of the war, so it'll be even bigger and busier! I expect all you kids to have a good time and enjoy yourself to the fullest! But, make sure you keep your wits about you, okay?"

They finally settled down in the city's 'airport' and departed. With their 'criminals' properly disguised, they headed out into the big city….

And stared at the teaming streets of strange individuals. "It's just like the costume parade at the Mahora Festival," Kagome giggled. "Except that this time it's all real!"

"Even someone like Inuyasha doesn't look out of place around here," Shippô agreed, inviting punishment from the _hanyô_.

"Jeez, the name of Kalan Lockeheart is everywhere," Yoshimori murmured. "Look at that…'Kalan _manjû_ 'for goodness' sake…."

"Well, it's just food," Tokine chuckled. "Why don't we at least try them? Then we can say we've eaten 'Kalan _manjû_ ', at least…."

With a chuckle of his own, Kajirô purchased one for each member of the party, which they all consumed with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Then Kagome grew excited again. "Oh, look! Mai, Mai, look!"

"Hmm? What is it now?"

"Kain- _sensei_!" Indeed, a large flag advertising the Memorial Festival's fighting tournament—the 'Kalan Lockeheart Cup'—was headlined by an image of Kain's older alter-ego. "And Kenji- _kun_ , too!" she added, noting the _hanyô_ next to him in the image (but Kain's face, of course, was the most prominent one).

 _('Kain,')_ Mai thought with relief and a bit of pleasure. _('Look at you, trying to act all cool.')_

"It looks like we'll really be able to see him soon," Hinagiku said with a relieved sigh.

"It almost seems like that's the only thought that got you on the airship and up here to this floating island," Yoshimori needled her.

"S-shut up! Don't talk about that! Don't mention the floating! This is solid ground, right? Solid ground…under our feet, we are fine…."

"She's almost okay with them now as long as we don't mention them, or as long as she isn't able to look at how high we are," Kagome remarked to Mai happily. "Hina- _chan_ seems to be leveling up her willpower, too…."

"S-stop making fun of me…."

"If only others could level out of their faults so quickly," Kajirô sighed. "Especially Isumi- _chan_."

"Eh? What about her?" Tokine asked, surprised.

"She's disappeared again."

Indeed, a quick glance around revealed that their personal child priestess had indeed vanished once again. "She's blessed, so she never seems to actually get in trouble," Yoshimori sighed. "Still, I can't believe how frustrating that girl is…."

"How'd you manage to travel with her for over two months?" Inuyasha said.

"I guess we better split up and look for her," Mai sighed. "At least she isn't one of the ones with a bounty on her head…."

"That's true," Kajirô agreed. "And those bounties are still going to make our lives difficult. Still, we can afford some distractions right now, so it's not a big deal…as Yoshimori- _san_ says, she is blessed, so she'll be fine. Perhaps we should split up our wanted women as much as possible for now, to keep from drawing too much attention?"

Kagome nodded. "Probably for the best. I see the 'Hotel Vivanica' that was recommended to us. Let's meet up over there in two hours. For now, Inuyasha and I will go this way."

"Kaji- _kun_ and I will head this direction," Hinagiku put it next, selecting a path that, probably not coincidentally, led the furthest into the city proper and farthest from the island's 'shores'.

Mai glanced over her shoulder. "There's…something I've got to see. I think I'll head up towards that plaza there. I'll be good on my own, so I'll see you all later."

They watched her go. "That's…the Crystal Princess talking?" Kagome asked Hinagiku. The other girl shrugged. "You know, I was told that when we were scattered at the Gateport, we were sent to places our 'souls' or whatever might be connected to, so I ended up in a land my ancestors came from. That would also explain why we haven't heard from Momo, if she was sent to the Soul Society, which the last note we got from Kain- _sensei_ 's group suggested. But shouldn't Mai have arrived here, if she's a princess from this land?"

"She couldn't have," Tokine denied with a shake of her head. "It's because of what happened to this land. The disaster that destroyed it left it warped and distorted…for years, it was like a polluted or radioactive location. Magic wouldn't work at all, or only chaotically. It's only become inhabitable again over the last few years…many of the previous Festivals took place in the area around the country, not near the capital itself. Even now, warp magic like that wouldn't touch this place."

"Will that interfere with our plans to gate home from here?" Hinagiku inquired.

"I don't know for certain. I hope not…in any case, we should get looking, too. Yoshimori- _kun_ and I will go this way…."

Mai's attention was split as she wandered about, part of her analyzing the lay of the land, memorizing locations, making plans for escape routes, and all the habits she'd acquired over three months of being on the run. One part was lazily riding on a small bubble of recollection from her previous 'life'. One was earnestly searching for clues of Isumi's passing, and the other was thinking about Kain, and the rest of their friends, so long separated….

She had chosen a place Hinagiku would never have followed her to, a walkway running along the 'shore' of the floating island. She paused in wonder to gaze at the clouds lining those shores like the sea, the floating marine life swimming through the air, and, most particularly, a temple-like gazebo some distance off in front of her. Memories burned at the back of her memory. _('This feeling, being above the clouds…scenery you never got in the old world. This place, so familiar…some of the happiest of my old memories….')_

She traveled along the shore, heading for the gazebo, the voices, scenes, impressions flashing across the back of her mind. She arrived at the location and gazed across it in satisfaction. _('Yes, this is….')_

"Hey, Mai, over here! Over this way!"

It was a voice she hadn't heard in years, but it was instantly recognizable. "Kalan," she murmured happily, and started up the steps toward the voice. She passed through the pillared arches and gazed across at the cloaked figure standing at the edge of the balcony.

Kalan turned and smiled at her. "Come on, the view's much better over here," he invited her.

Mai felt that she was a tiny child again, gazing up at the towering young man. Then, as her two realities clashed a little, the image faded…but, as she ran up the steps to pursue the retreating figure, she spotted a new figure in his place, one that, nonetheless, was nearly identical. Kain looked at Mai in shock, wonder, and surprise. "Mai…."

"Mai!" he finally cried excitedly, turning to her.

"Kain!" Mai returned, running his direction.

She threw her arms around him, much to Kain's surprise, but, almost instinctively, he returned the embrace. "It's really you," she murmured.

"Mai," he murmured back.

"I knew you were safe," she said, "but still….I'm glad to see you, Kain…."

"Y-you too, Mai…it's been…so long…."

"Ah," Isumi murmured from right next to them. "Mai- _san_ and Kain- _sama_ are sharing an intimate embrace…it seems they are much closer than teacher and student…."

This brought them apart in a hurry and they stared at the girl. "I-Isumi- _chan_!?' Kain sputtered. "W-what are you doing here? W-we, uh, we were just…."

"There you are," Mai said with a sigh, recovering from the surprise and embarrassment more quickly (due to sad recent practice). "You have _got_ to stop getting lost." She turned an embarrassed smile on Kain. "Isumi- _chan_ and some others came through to help us right before all the Gateports went down. We've only made it this far thanks to them…."

"Ah…sounds like you've had a time of it…."

"Oh, you wouldn't believe what we've been through! See, this one time…."

Mai began to describe some of her adventures to Kain, he listened with rapt interest.

"It certainly sounds like you've been busy," Kain laughed. "Magical beasts, bounty hunters…and the Obsidian Star…." There was a dangerous glint in his eye as his voice went low.

Mai looked at Kain closely. "Is it just me…or are you a little taller?"

"H-huh? W-well, maybe…."

"Wait a minute." Mai stood Kain up and suddenly began to inspect him, looking him over. Carefully. "You…what have you been involving yourself in all this time?"

"W-what are you talking about, Mai? You're talking strange…."

"No, no…you're…well, something's different, I can't put my finger on it, but it's definitely something!" She leaned in to glare at him. "You haven't been using my absence as an excuse to go and push yourself _waaaay_ too hard again, have you?"

"A-ah, well, it's not like that," Kain murmured.

"No, it certainly is," Mai retorted. "Lemme guess. Considering this is you, you've been worrying yourself sick with guilt all this time, convinced that it's all your fault we ended up like this, and because of that you've gotten to the point where you have no choice but to 'get stronger' and did some crazy training to level up…." As Kain recoiled from the bull's-eye hit, she suddenly added, "Let me just say one thing: it's absolutely not any fault of yours that any of this happened, and _nobody_ blames you for it in the slightest! So stop worrying and feeling guilty, all right?"

"Ah…right," Kain agreed easily. Mai stared at him in surprise. "But…making sure all of you return to Earth…and to Mahora…safely is my responsibility as your teacher. That's all."

Mai appraised him once again and smiled. "Well…I guess that part of you has grown up as well." She sighed. "Still, it's such a shame…we came here to find things out about Kalan…about your father…and we've ended up just in this kind of mess…."

Kain shook his head. "No. Actually, I've managed to pick up quite a bit of useful information about my father…."

"What, really!?" Mai burst out excitedly. "What?"

"No, I'll explain it all later, when there's time…when enough of us are together. It wasn't easy information to get, but…."

"Oh, here you are. Who's the girl? One of your students?"

"Aiden…." Kain turned and Mai looked in surprise as the fedora-adorned man approached.

Mai gazed at him in wonder and then smiled. "Aiden…so this is the 'useful information about Kalan' that you've picked up?' She rose and turned to the man. "Aiden…it's been a long time…."

Aiden stared at the girl quizzically. "Do I…know you…?"

Mai stared back, then smiled. "Well, of course you do! It's me, Mai…I should hope you remember me better than I remember you, considering…."

"Mai…little Mai!?" Aiden replied, almost shrieking. "Holy…wait, what!? You're…not a kid, you're…wait a minute….

"The 'Mai' on that bounty list is our little Mai!? What are we doing standing around here for!? We've got to go save her, we have to…."

"Easy," little Chisame said, leaping into view and kicking Aiden in the face. "She's right here and she doesn't need to be rescued. Get a grip!"

Laughing, Kamo came into existence on Kain's shoulder. "Really, Aiden…you had the name and the picture. You never even suspected it?"

"Of course not!" Aiden said almost hotly, brushing at his coat. "The last time I saw Mai…heck, the only Mai I remember is a little girl not big enough to go to kindergarten! And her name was Mai Alusia Hairen Takiva, not…what, Tokiha Mai? And she wasn't…so big…."

"Oi, where are you looking?" Mai asked carefully, trying not to sound too put off.

"Ahem," he coughed into his hand. "Anyway, why didn't you mention that, Kamo? Kain?"

"Never thought of it," Kain admitted simply. "I was worried about everyone…Mai's connection to the Crystal Princess was the least of my concerns."

"As for me, I knew you'd react this way," Kamo chuckled. "And I knew it was pointless to worry. Kain's needed you a lot more than Mai up to this point, you know."

Aiden sighed. "You're right." He stared at Mai again. "Well…I'd heard Takamichi had taken you to Japan after Gato died. So they finally fixed your, uh, growth problem? How'd you end up here?"

"It's a long story," Mai sighed.

"They…took her memories away," Kain explained. "She was just Tokiha Mai, a normal middle school, until I, uh, arrived at Mahora…she caught me using magic my first day there, and since then she was always neck deep in my adventures…until she'd gone so far we couldn't keep her back anymore…."

"I don't remember everything," Mai added. "I'm still…mostly Tokiha Mai…but I remember all of you…and I feel relieved knowing you're with us now, Aiden." She bowed to the man.

Aiden chuckled. "You better stop that…I'm an old man, and I shouldn't be getting too deeply involved in this now…but if it's you saying things like that I might be sticking my own nose in too far…."

Mai finally turned to the little girl with cat-ears who had been observing this scene in bemusement. "Is that…Chisame- _chan_?" she said finally.

"In the flesh," Chisame replied half-cheerfully. "Great disguise, huh? Anyway, I've been his proxy babysitter for you, and since you're here now, I'll turn him back over to you."

Kain chuckled in reply.

8-8-8

"WHAT!? Aiden Rylack of the Red Wings…Kalan Lockeheart's personal friend!?"

Most of the party was suitably agape at the VIP Mai had brought with her. They were excited to see Kain again, of course, and they greeted Chisame warmly and were relieved to have Isumi back, but for most of them, having braved the dangers of Arcanus Myrror for some time, the presence of Aiden Rylack was like an unexpected bonus.

"The famed 'Mage-Killer', 'Archaeologist', 'Master Treasure-Hunter'," Kajirô murmured. "We really have a member of the Red Wings here with us…."

"Oh, hey! If you're a friend of Kalan, you must have known my father!" Kagome said excitedly.

"Ah…you must be Higurashi Kagome, Eishun's little girl, right?" Aiden laughed. "Ha! This is a shock! How'd that straight-laced old samurai wind up with a beautiful daughter like this?"

"Is this guy really supposed to be somebody important?" Inuyasha, debonair conversationalist, demanded dourly.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome insisted harshly.

"Only to certain people," Aiden replied flippantly.

"Aiden Rylack is one of the most famous people in this world," Yoshimori informed him, but without much enthusiasm. "Well, being sealed away for fifty years, he's as foreign to you as all the rest of the stories you've been hearing. But now that Kalan Lockeheart is missing and presumed dead, he's considered the strongest human alive in this world." Inuyasha did grunt an acceptance from this reply.

"Well, there are all sorts of stories," Aiden said humbly. "I get names like 'Mage-Killer' and 'Ultimate Warrior', but really I'm just a simple treasure hunter, and I've been retired from that for a while now. I just came out of retirement to give you guys a bit of a tour of this world, and then, since you got in trouble, I decided to give you a bit of a hand with getting out of it. But I'm not a hero anymore, so I wouldn't expect too much of me. It's this generation's turn to play hero…."

"So you say," Isumi replied quietly. "But Aiden- _sama_ is very pleased to be back in the fight again…."

"Ah, c'mon, little girl, don't play games like that with me…."

"Well, we'll see how all that goes," Kain replied standing. "In any case, let's get down to business. I've given you all the rundown of what's happened so far with everyone, but I'll recap: we're here with three main objectives: 1) Gather our party safely together here, 2) Find the Gateport and activate it and return to Earth, and 3) Do what we can to (safely!) interfere with the Obsidian Star while we're at it. Three is of minor importance; to begin with 1), we have Nanami and Rei out on their new stealth ship, gathering those of our comrades that they can; they already have several gathered with them. The other part of 1) involves freeing Izumi- _san_ and the others from slavery, which should also be no problem—Kenjirô and I will do whatever it takes to win this tournament, and we should be more than capable at this point. That leaves 2)—and I'll need to have help with that point, once we've gathered a few more members."

Everyone looked at him seriously, and he continued, "Only a few of the islands of Orimus still float in the sky like this. The Gate should be somewhere around those ruins of the fallen city, but its exact location is unknown—most of the city is still specially controlled by the Halteese Republic, and information on the lost city is still heavily classified. If Yue were here, her artifact could probably get some of that information, but for now, we'll have to rely on regular reconnaissance."

"It's…the fallen city, down on the ground, right?" Hinagiku asked, perking up. "I think I would be a great help in finding it…!"

"Anything to get off the floating rock," Kenjirô murmured.

Kain shook his head. "No…it's too dangerous for you, Hina." As Hinagiku began to grow irritated at this dismissal, he continued, "Certainly, you are strong, Hina, but it's really more a mission for stealth…if fighting becomes involved, it may already become a lost cause, because it means being found by local authorities or Eminus' group. I'm thinking of asking Akari- _san_ and Kiami- _san_ to take care of it, with help from Rei and Nanami aboard the _El-Hazard_. For now, however, all of us can keep our ears open in case we hear something."

Hinagiku sighed and leaned back. "Oh, well, fine…."

"If they're disciples of the Yokohama schools, they're the better choices," Aiden agreed. "The biggest worry, of course, is the potential threat of the Obsidian Star, right? You girls might be tough, but some of you might attract more attention from them. Two masters of _ki_ won't stand out as much, and they're far more used to hiding themselves."

"Exactly," Kamo agreed. "For now, everyone here should stay put. Don't worry—if you're stir crazy, I'm sure you'll get lots of opportunities for action. But for now, you should just relax and maybe enjoy this Festival."

8-8-8

Eminus and Kinue stood on one of the little 'asteroids' floating around the capital, watching the festive lights and fireworks in the darkness. "Ah…a Festival of Peace! It looks like fun," Kinue giggled. "So, they're starting the real festivities the day after tomorrow?" She glanced at her commander. "But, you're not that interested, are you, Eminus- _kun_?"

"I could say the same about you."

"Hehe…I've never gotten along with ordinary people that well. That's why I left the Sendô family, after all. But it's okay…blood and fighting are enough for me…."

Eminus suddenly grabbed Kinue and dragged her behind a larger rock outcropping. The woman yelped in surprise, but a moment later a ship burst into view from below and began to 'sail' through the sea of clouds around the various rock outcroppings of the foreign land.

"Oh…an airship? Those ships are becoming more and more common here in Arcanus Myrror…for a while, nobody wanted to use them for anything more than a rich man's ferry…."

"Just as a shadow mimics that which casts it, the magical world mimics the old world," Eminus replied. "With greater ships and aircraft becoming more prevalent weapons on that side, politicians who receive news from the old world have to imitate the fashions…but this one is of particular note. It is a flagship of Haruka Armitage, the Continental Orb Topaz." In response to Kinue's quizzical tone, he expounded, "She is a Crown HiME contracted to Yukino Chrysant, a senator of the Halteese Republic. The HiME of Garderobe were given unilateral authority over the Festival's security, due to their neutrality, and they have called on their graduates to assist them—an interesting political situation that lets each country feel involved in the defense while leaving all the power in the hands of Garderobe and its 'owner'. So that ship is loudly skulking around, looking for miscreants like us….

"Of course, even so, all three of the major powers have their own ships skulking around as well. This is a 'peace festival' in name only. Still, all of this political blundering is fortunate for us. With everyone's attention on each other, it is so much easier for us to make our moves unnoticed."

"Ah…well, I'm bored and frustrated," Kinue said brightly, "so can I go slice the people on that ship up?"

"…Were you even listening? We need to keep a low profile for a bit longer. Although I daresay you wouldn't have any problem slicing the people on that ship up, excepting, of course, the commander herself (if she is present)."

"If you say so." She glanced slyly at him. "So, this is it? The culmination of your plans? After all this time, I still don't know quite what you're after. What _is_ the Obsidian Star's goal, anyway?"

"Quite simply, it is survival," Eminus replied in his same dull, bland voice. "We must have this world in order to survive. Our straits would not be so dire had Kalan Lockeheart not defeated us twenty years ago…now, this is our last chance."

 _"Indeed it is…which is why everything must be ready."_

Nagi appeared behind them. They turned to him as he was joined by Van, Legretta, Dist and Arietta. "Everything's proceeding smoothly…our only setbacks so far have been for bonus points. Ah, but such bonus points…."

"You're still not done?" Eminus demanded. "As you say, nothing extra is necessary…."

"Indeed, but it will change the scope of everything," Nagi replied. "Once more, just to keep Kain- _kun_ and his little Girl Scout troop on their toes, I'll say hello to them all."

"You may do as you like, as long as you don't endanger the overall objective."

"There's no chance of that. It's finally time; Van wants his share as well, of course, but this time I'm going to be putting my _own_ pets to work…my _real_ prizes."

There was a low-pitched whine as the sky behind him suddenly seemed to tear open, like monstrous mouths opening, nothing but blackness within the several tears. Three figures stepped out of them, all white-clad with swords and strange partial face adornments.

"Oh? So it seems you've completed your Soul Reaper friend's work. That is…interesting…."

"Because of this, I won't be requiring any of your little girls for the time being. But you have your own work for them, right? I'll leave you to it." And the boy and his collection vanished.

Eminus nodded as Alvaris appeared on his shoulders. "Let us begin."

He pulled a collection of cards out of his pocket and spread them out like a large poker hand in one hand. "Come, my disciples: Ellis, Vira-Lorr, Fyuria, Zerva, Luana, Winfield, Elaine, Yayoi, Sherufanir, Valeria, Noah, Faina, Lavinia, Ryuryu, Kairen."

They appeared before him to the accompaniment of magic circles, lights, and similar effects. They all, even Winfield, took a knee to present themselves to their master. "How prompt…" he murmured with a small smile.

"Can you tell us at least one thing, Aiden- _san_?" Hinagiku asked the man before they parted for the evening. "What is the objective of the Obsidian Star, anyway?"

Aiden chuckled. "What do you expect? They're an evil magic organization…they're out to 'destroy the world'."

"T-that's a little…."

"Simple? Childish?" Aiden smiled enigmatically. "Well, they are beings not of this world, or any familiar even to the most studied mages. They didn't come here to this world to have tea, after all. We don't understand everything, but from what we do understand, we know this: regardless of what their overall goals and desires are, if they accomplish them, this world as we know it will come to an end."

F I N

 _Author's Note: The Gathering_

 _Perhaps that should have been the title of the chapter. The Gathering, not Author's Note._

 _We've skipped a bit of stuff, but we're getting to the meat and there wasn't much else to talk about…everyone's circumstances being in Orimus will be revealed (including how Izumi and the rest of the slaves and their ilk arrive) as they come up. Most of the details are unimportant. After his training, Kain returned to the tournament for the last few rounds, he and Kenjirô qualified for the preliminaries of the Kalan Lockeheart Cup, and so they came over. Aiden, of course, is following them, as is Chisame, the last member of the team left with Kain right now…until the reunion. Kain and Mai's reunion is emotionally significant…but all are happy to see each other again. Some of the added side characters have interesting ways of getting along and dealing with these others around…._

 _The Aiden/Mai connection was one of the more difficult portions to plan out right. Ryan has been one of the most vocal in discussing how 'his character(s)' would handle certain situations and adjust to them, and his input has been invaluable. One of the random things I hadn't thought of was how Aiden perceived the Crystal Princess. Originally he would have been in the camp of 'if it's that dangerous, get rid of it'. But with a soft spot for kids, he couldn't really do anything himself, and would have grown fond of the child over the years of adventure with her. And, with her tragic circumstances leaving her in an eternal-child curse, he would have felt fiercely protective of and concerned about her. Not enough to abandon his own career to run around 'heroing' with Kalan, Eishun, Jynx, Takamichi and Gato—he felt she was in good hands traveling with them—but he would have been thinking about her for a long time…. There was even a suggestion that, if Mai were out in the wilderness lost, and not with Kain when they met, he would go storming off to rescue her most of all, knowing that she is potentially (because of her tragedies) the most vulnerable, as well as the one targeted by the Obsidian Star. That might have been interesting, but would not fit into my story. What do I do, then, without ruining the character…? (Incidentally, it's almost amusing he freaks out over a little danger Mai_ might _be in after subjecting Kain to a death experience…. But it defines his character well.)_

 _Then I realized that he never had to know…Kamo has been giving Aiden most of the low-down on Kain's adventures and circumstances, and so the details are up to him. Chisame talks about her a lot, but she is the kind to call her classmates by their last name, and always calls her 'Tokiha'. And Kamo, being more in tune with everything and even more pragmatic when necessary than even Aiden, would have, as he stated, simply neglected to mention her. Sure, Aiden's heard of Kain and his class, he's seen the bounty boards, but it's been ten years since he's heard anything of Mai, her Japanese name is completely different (not to mention written in an entirely different language with a completely different alphabet), and she is much older than the eternal child he's used to. Sure, he'd probably heard from Takamichi those years ago that Mai had been left in the care of Mahora, might even had heard that her age problem had finally been reversed, but those little clues are not necessarily enough to prompt him to realize her identity offhand…sure, if he had been studying her, but right now, he's more interested in Kain. He's_ expecting _Kain. He's_ not _expecting Mahora to send the Crystal Princess right back into the middle of this mess!_

 _So, with all of that, here we are prepping the stage for the big event. Let's continue on…._


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter Three: The Fury Unleashed, Part One: Plucking Wings

November 11th, early morning, some time before Kain met up with his friends in the city….

Dolnegus was a mysterious individual. The lands of the western continent were wild and anarchistic, with little government beyond an individual city's walls (and precious little of that within), and so the great tycoon, with his enormous wealth and influence, was in some ways a de facto ruler of most of the southern half of that continent.

Kain could not get a reading on the man. He had never met him—although his influence was vast, he rarely met face-to-face with anyone, communicating mostly through messengers and servants. He was involved in many different ventures, and dealt largely in slave trading and other unsavory ventures.

On the other hand, they were all legal, and Dolnegus, despite his influence, never seemed to try to dictate the legality of what he dealt in. Harmful and sinister drugs were outlawed and there were not even rumors of Dolnegus trafficking in them—there was a distinct lack of them in the wild lands that fell under his shadow.

And furthermore, he had dealt incredibly fairly with Kain since his arrival. He (through his messengers) had taken no offense to Kain's flamboyant arrival to save his students, had instantly accepted Kain and Kenjirô into his fighting league and adopted them as his new team champions, and had easily agreed to Kain's conditions of earning the prize money fighting in order to buy the freedom of his four newest slaves. Kain and Kenjirô had, in fact, come to Orimus as part of Dolnegus' entourage, as the champions of his gladiator unit and the victors of his tournament, and he brought his gladiators' team of trainers—Vargas, Tôkasa, and their flunkies—to handle those duties for Kain and Kenjirô in their tournament battles. He had brought servants with him, of course, and had also brought a collection to run his usual tournament café that he always maintained in his own tournament—headed by 'Mama', the workers included the otherwise insignificant slaves Miki, Izumi, Riza, and Yukari. Kain knew that they were being brought as a good faith gesture towards their prior arrangement—if Kain succeeded, he would immediately allow their freedom into his custody, and perhaps, if he failed, he would be willing to make other arrangements with Kain….

And so, with Kenjirô serving as their bodyguard (in his Kôtarô/Kôjirô guise), the four girls were wandering about through the street, marveling at a city much larger and more prominent than Granicus where they had just spent the last few months.

"It's so much livelier!" Izumi remarked.

"And the Festival hasn't even started yet, not really," Miki added.

"What's going on over there?" Yukari queried, observing an attentive and boisterous crowd.

A pair of fighters, one a beastman, one human, were engaged in combat. The crowd was placing bets on the two combatants. "Must be a betting match," Kenjirô remarked. "They're big news here. Sure, the parades, the vendors, the parties and such are all important, but for many, the contests are the biggest attraction. Official or unofficial, small or large, they're all over the place. Street fights, races with magic (including brooms), aerial jousting by Master Riders…any competition you can bet on will be going on somewhere just around the corner." He chuckled and pointed at one of the giant posters. "Of course, when it comes to gambling, the biggest 'betting match' of all is that tournament we're entering—the 'Kalan Lockeheart Cup', named in honor of the hero who ended the war twenty years ago and saved the world."

"Wow…" Yukari murmured. "But…do you really think that you can enter such a huge tournament and win it?"

"Hey, who do you think I am?" Kenjirô retorted cheerfully. "I don't enter anything with the intent of losing…."

"Hmm…even though it means you'll have to get past Kalan- _san_?" Miki offered.

He chuckled. "Of course, I don't intend to lose to anyone, even my rival…but more important than anything, as long as we get you girls freed, it doesn't really matter which of us wins the tournament. But we will do it, no matter what."

"Hmm," Yukari replied with an air of nonchalance. "Well, if you say so, Ken—Kôtarô- _kun_."

Izumi giggled. "Those two are always going at it," Izumi said. "They're a cute couple…."

 _('Hmm…if a slightly false couple,')_ Miki thought _. ('Not that you and he are much different….')_

"Ah, Izumi- _san_ , _minna_!"

The group turned as the devil—that is, 'Kalan'—saluted them. "Hey, shopping? If so, you could have at least invited me."

"Ah! Hey there, Kalan- _san_!" Izumi replied enthusiastically.

"Shall I hold those for you? They look heavy," Kain said, taking the packages out of Izumi's hands. He then cast his gaze on the rest of the girls, holding the heavy bag up perfectly balanced in one hand. Then, to the surprise of all, he gestured, and the remaining bags floated out of hands to hover around the man. "It's much easier like this…none of you should be working so hard just before a Festival like this!"

Izumi and Riza both cheered on the mage and his work enthusiastically. Yukari glanced over at Izumi's worshipful face and felt the twinge within her heart once again….

"Chisame- _chan_ , Miki- _chan_ , I can't take it anymore!" Yukari wailed later in private to the two girls. "I just can't stand it!"

"Take what?" Miki said blithely.

"Oi, just calm down, Hirai," (Chibi-) Chisame said.

"How am I supposed to calm down!?" Yukari wailed. "Izumi- _chan_ is such an innocent girl…what's she going to do when she finds out that the man of her dreams doesn't really exist?"

"Hmm, that is a question," Miki noted. "It's almost as shocking as seeing you flustered like this."

"Miki- _chan_ , she's your best friend! Shouldn't you be more concerned about her!?" Then she seemed to get a hold of herself and sighed, calming finally. "I-I'm sorry…I know, right now, we have more important things to be worrying about…."

"No, don't sweat it, Hirai. This is a pretty major deal for the girl." Chisame sighed. "But you know, the quickest and easiest way, the most painless way, for this problem to be solved would be for Segawa to confess her feelings and then get turned down. You, Hirai, are the one who has prevented her from doing so…."

"B-but…with Izumi- _chan_ in her condition…even after recovering, she's so fragile emotionally…she wouldn't be able to take it…."

"That's true," Miki agreed. "Izumi's never been athletic, but she's not that frail…but ever since she fell ill, her health has been somewhat worse (of course, for all of us this rough manual labor we're being forced through is wearing down heavy on us….). But the fact is, 'Kalan Lockeheart' is the emotional support Izumi needs to get through this…that's why, as her friends, we have to keep up this charade."

"If it were anyone but you saying that, I'd easily admit it," Yukari sighed with only a hint of venom. "But there's no happy ending here…I know that…but still…."

Chisame sighed. "Well, there is one semi-happy ending we could arrange…."

Yukari perked up and stared at her hopefully. "And that is…?"

"One – we allow her to confess her feelings. Two – Kalan accepts her feelings. Three – Kalan wins the tournament (better case in this scenario than Kôjirô doing it) and frees you from slavery…."

"A-and what then!?"

"Four – Kalan dies of the wounds he received in the final match! (Or so we let her think!)"

Miki snapped her fingers and pointed at Chisame. "Well done, Chiu- _chan_! That is the perfect True End to the 'Izumi x Kalan' story arc! He dies, but his love lives on forever in Izumi's heart—the hero who sacrificed himself to save the girl he loved! We need to immediately start writing the script…."

"NO! NO WAY! That's not a happy ending at all!" Yukari protested vehemently.

"You think?" Chisame said. "We avoid future complications…I'd say it's a neat little plan."

"If he's alive, it just makes things messy later," Miki agreed. "It's a fitting end for a fictional character."

"No, no, no! That could screw with her for her whole life! The trauma of a lifetime!"

The girl in question was out on a terrace of the great estate Dolnegus had rented for his entourage, an estate overlooking the great arena that would be used for the upcoming tournament. She was carrying a load of laundry, much more easily than she had when she began working in slavery those months before. She observed the milling crowds below, hard at work in preparation to set it all up. "Ah, even the arena is so busy! Everyone is preparing for the Festival in their own way! I better work hard too!"

She continued in her way cheerfully, enjoying the feel of the soft clean cloth and its smell, smelling of 'the morning sun.'

So engaged was she in her enjoyment, however, she didn't see the muttering man emerging from the stairs until they collided.

Izumi fell roughly to the ground and immediately began apologizing as she moved to pick up her scattered burden. The other party immediately barked out, "Try looking where you were going, you little…." He was brought up short as he stared at the girl. "…Huh, what's this? You again?" Tôkasa growled.

Izumi stared up at the man as she identified him, and started stuttering. "Tô-Tôkasa- _san_ …."

"That's – _sama_ to you, you stupid little girl! And what do you think you're doin', walking all cozy-like with the washing…hmm?"

He spotted one random article of the pile that had fallen nearby and came to a sadly incorrect but, for him, rather obvious conclusion. "Kalan's clothes…aha! Aw, how cute! So you were sniffing around in his clothes, now, were you?" he pressed as Izumi flushed at his leer and suggestive tone. "Hahahah! I thought you were acting a bit funny! So that's what that's about, is it, brat? Little slave got the hots for the big warrior? Well, don't worry! I think you make a great couple! The clueless rich boy and the pathetic little slave! Wonder what you were thinking about with your nose buried in your prince's loins, eh, you _ecchi_ little brat!? Buahaha!"

Izumi's embarrassment actually began to turn to anger as Tôkasa continued his rant. "But man, this could be quite a scandal, you know? He's a world-famous gladiator, and you're just a worthless little slave. Oh yeah, I know he's doing the whole big-shot warrior deal so he can buy you out and set you free. Man, ain't that just the sweetest little thing!"

He finished and gazed down at Izumi's red-faced but fierce glare. "…Oh? What the hell are you glaring at? You little slave bitch…."

"Why?" Izumi demanded suddenly. She lowered her head. "Why are you…always picking fights with us like this?" _('Me, fine…but treating Kalan-_ san _like this...!')_ Summoning reserves of strength and indignation she didn't know she had, she declared, "I don't care. You can say whatever you like about me. But…but just so you know…I could never possibly lose…never give in…to a worthless man like you!"

Tôkasa returned her glare, far more serious and, almost, deadly than he had previously. "…Fine. Then I'll make myself nice and clear now, too. Screwed-up slaves like you who don't know your place, and little prissy rich boys like that Kalan, who don't have an ounce of brain in their heads, who walk around like they own the place just because they can fight a little…I hate the lot of ya!"

He raised a hand to strike her, but suddenly the bear matriarch was behind him, grabbing his arm before the blow could fall. He turned back in shock and fear…for just a moment.

"How many times do I have to tell you these kids are worth a heck of a lot more than you!? And to think you have the nerve to actually try and strike a defenseless young girl!" she roared, chastising the man thoroughly.

She laughed expansively after she had sent the thug running. "I think we really told him there, Izumi- _chan_!" Izumi began to apologize, but Mama cut her off. "Oh, no, I sure don't mind you putting him in his place once in a while!" She sighed and smiled at the girl. "Still, I wouldn't judge him too harshly there just now. He's just a little excited, really…it's been years since he's been able to return to his hometown."

"Hometown…?"

Mama pointed out at the clouds that perpetually surrounded the floating city. "The ruins stretch out under the clouds over there. Twenty years ago, when the war ended, the islands fell from the sky. The greatest city in the world fell to pieces and the country was devastated in the aftermath. An entire country had disappeared…."

"T-that must have been really difficult," Izumi offered.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad! And besides, just because he's been through all of that is no excuse for him to act like a thug all the time! Next time he tries anything, just tell me, and I'll beat the crap out of him for you!"

"O-okay…."

Grumbling, Tôkasa finally emerged onto the opposite terrace, overlooking the busy streets below. "Ah, meh…life's been like crap ever since those damn kids showed up…."

He spotted something. "Hmm? That white cloak…of course, the original Kalan Lockeheart made it a fashion statement for years, but that pretty one, with the obsessive care he takes of it…that's the kid all right. Where's he going…?"

Kain was ducking into a dark, short alley and moved behind some boxes. After a few moments, Kain emerged from concealment…in his normal age and size, instead of the guise of Kalan.

Tôkasa observed it in surprise. This transformation magic was high-quality stuff, even he could tell, and he wondered why 'Kalan' needed such a trick. He recalled the young man saying something about heading out into the city a short time ago, when he'd last seen him, but….

"That face, it was familiar…of course, it was Kalan's, just younger, but still…." And then his eyes widened in shock as he realized where he had seen it….

8-8-8

The significant events of Kain's visit into the city were covered last chapter. Now, leaving his friends' hotel after having had his meeting with Aiden and the new arrivals, he turned his face back towards the arena.

"It's getting late…I'd better head back." He half-sighed, half-laughed. _('But first I have to change back into Kalan. It's amusing…security is so lax here, it's actually easier to move around as a wanted man than as a famous gladiator….')_

"Kain- _sensei_!? Kain- _sensei_!"

Kain turned in surprise as Izumi came hurrying up to him. "So you made it out to Orimus! You look well!" she said enthusiastically.

 _('That's right…this whole time I've been Kalan, at least whenever I was around her…this is the first time she's seen 'Kain'_ _since the Gateport….')_ "Of course I am…."

"Are the others with you?" she asked excitedly, almost ignoring his reply entirely.

"No, well, most everyone else should be arriving soon…."

The two walked a bit together, Izumi cheerfully catching her teacher up on everything that had happened to her since their last 'parting'. "I was so surprised when we ended up here! We never could have imagined that you and your cousin Kalan- _san_ came from a mysterious world like this…."

Kain laughed. "So you say, but I'm a newcomer here, too, really…." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Izumi- _san_ …because of me, you've ended up in such a difficult situation…I've been unable to even show my face to you…."

"Oh, no…it's our fault! You told us not to follow you, and we decided not to listen. I-it's been pretty tough…I've never had to work like this before in my life…."

Kain listened to her ramble with a slight smile, almost glad to have the old Izumi back…but the feeling made him feel all the sadder.

"Kain- _sensei_ ," Izumi said suddenly, kicking him out of his reverie as her voice became the more solemn tone that had been more common for her recently.

"Yes?"

"I-I couldn't possibly ask him to his face, but…is your cousin…Kalan- _san_ …is he doing all this for us just because you asked him too?"

Kain considered how to reply carefully. There was a specific reason—several in fact—why he hadn't appeared to Izumi in his normal form at all. As usual, his overly-perceptive and brilliant mind had come to many separate thoughts and conclusions, but, emotionally unprepared to handle them, especially considering the situation they were all in, he had done what he could to push them aside, ignore them, and put them off as long as possible. The only problem with his escapist attitude was that, when he was forced to confront any of those problems, those feelings, the build-up of emotional stress, came back all the harder when the floodgates finally opened. He tried to weigh his words and thoughts carefully.

"Kalan is Kalan," Kain replied cryptically. "He has his own thoughts…he's an extremely caring individual. Sure, the fact that you're my students makes him take special note of you, but he's the kind of man who would do this for anyone…."

"Ah…it must be tough on him…."

"Not compared to what he expects." Kain smiled slightly. This was an interesting encounter he had yet to handle before, but he was actually enjoying the mental exercise required in inventing his thoughts and sentiments he held towards his 'cousin'. "We're both chasing the same thing…he might actually think that the harder it is for him, the better it is, because there's no harder path for him to choose."

"Yeah…he is a real nice person, isn't he…a valiant hero…." Izumi sighed. "But, you know, Kain- _sensei_ …I think…I'm really in love with Kalan- _san_ …."

And this was another interesting feeling. Hearing a confession in the third party, or something like that, was different, and he had honestly been expecting it, but hearing the words coming out loud was shaking his emotional shield….

8-8-8

Kain sighed as he entered his living quarters (a section of several connecting rooms shared by Kain, Kenjirô, and Chisame that was part of Dolnegus' rental estate). Chisame, in her guise as a _chibi_ neocolom, glanced up from her computer at him in surprise. "What's the matter, Kain- _sensei_? Odd for you to be depressed right now, after Tokiha and the rest finally got here and all…."

"No…it's just…." He sighed again and sat on his bed, putting his head in his hands. "I'm just in so much trouble. I just don't know what to do…."

The youthened girl sighed herself and turned to him. "Okay, Kain- _sensei_ , tell your _ne-chan_ what's troubling you…."

Kain shot her an amusing look, but offered, "No, it's nothing new, but…I met Izumi _-san_ out in town today, while I was…well, normal, actually…it's the first time she's seen 'Kain' since the Gateport incident. She was very happy to talk to me, and confide in me…she confessed that she liked me…that is, Kalan…."

"…Oh, I see. So you found out about how Segawa feels. She couldn't tell 'Kalan', so she went and told 'Kain'…ain't that a beautiful thing…."

"Heh, 'found out'—more like I had it shoved in my face. I'm not a child, Chisame. I know how she feels about…'me'…I knew it beforehand…but…with things the way they are….

"'Kalan' and Izumi- _san_ were a mistake to begin with, a little twist of fate, and it didn't mean much, even after the Festival…it wasn't like Kalan was a hero or anything for her there, he was just a dashing older guy that she met by chance and enjoyed being with. Well, she was interested enough in him to want to keep in touch, and since disappearing entirely would have aroused the suspicions of Miki- _san_ , it was smarter to play along as her e-mail pal. That's all it was…until we came to the magical world. Here, Kalan Lockeheart was just a guise to avoid being captured, but as fate would have it, when I first met her in this guise, she was in dire straits, and my arrival became the coming of the dashing savior." He chuckled mirthlessly. "What a cruel joke. It's all a necessary evil, but…I can't help but hate myself for this, most of all…."

Chisame stared at him. She finally smirked slightly. "How properly penitent, Don Juan. But it doesn't stop you being a lady-killer. Still, this is an interesting reaction. You seem to panic when Miyazaki and Yoshida confess to you directly, yet about her you're so analytical…?"

Kain laughed another laugh of the humorless. "Because it isn't real. Well, her feelings are certainly real, certainly justified, but it isn't _really_ me she's in love with—not only is Kalan an illusion, but, as people will do, she's naturally built up Kalan in her own mind into something akin to her personal saving deity. One of the biggest reasons I have trouble accepting anyone's feelings is that I'm afraid of hurting people, either them, or any of the…the others…and with Izumi- _san_ , it's worse, because there's no road on this path, no ending in this story, that doesn't include a terribly broken heart…."

Chisame shook her head. "I've been around you a long time, so I understand what you're talking about, but I still find it unbelievable just how carefully thoughtful you are about everything. Even considering the potential harm your romantic life would cause? That's just ridiculous…besides, _Sensei_ , by trying not to hurt anyone's feelings, you're really trampling on all of them. Yeah, Miyazaki and a bunch of others are head over heels for you, but if they really care about you…they'll be happy for you, as long as you're happy with the one you choose. Delaying the inevitable is just prolonging the pain…but, then again, your mantra is 'we're still young', right? And that has nothing to do with the real problem: the girl you can never accept, because it's the culmination of a lie, Segawa Izumi.

"Hanabishi and I were talking, and decided the best course of action might be to kill Kalan off (faked, of course) in order to end the romance on a bittersweet note. Hirai wasn't fond of the idea, however."

Kain actually considered it. "I guess so…that might actually be best…we'll just have to see what happens…."

"Well, if you want my advice, I'd just forget that she ever told you anything."

Kain smirked. "Well, I'm good at that…or at least at pretending that nothing ever happened. That's always the easiest thing for me—delaying the inevitable, prolonging the pain, as you say. Izumi- _san_ …."

"Well, just remember: if she does confess to you, be a proper gentleman and turn her down…unless you really want to play the 'martyred hero' card."

"We'll keep that in reserve…"

"It's just my advice. Do what you think is best, and don't mind what I say…I'm not your mother, after all…."

Yukari was around the corner of the open door, listening in on the conversation sadly. _('Kain-_ sensei _…so you really found out…how Izumi-_ chan _feels….')_

8-8-8

The little veranda by the gazebo had become Kain's new deep-thought location, and he stood there, gazing out to see. Izumi's confession had been a terrible blow to him—he had shut up all his emotional attachments, his own confusion over his and others' feelings and the relationship he had, could have, may have wanted, and may have been wanted in with all the various girls….

Not just Izumi's confession, but now, with the dam burst, he thought about how relieved he was that Mai was back…how concerned he was for Nodoka and Kazumi, and he anxiously awaited their arrival at the city…how much he dreaded the fates of Momo, Yue, and Erika…how much he missed Lina right now. Every one of these girls was precious in his heart…and yet by any innocent action he seemed destined to bring heartache to any, most, or even all of them….

"Hey there, lover-boy! Seems you picked up a not-so-secret admirer, eh?"

Kain nearly fell over the railing both from the force and the subject of Aiden's sudden declaration. He turned to almost glare at the man as he approached and some small flat object held between the thumb and two fingers of one raised hand, with the _chibi_ Chisame trailing him with a look of amused resignation on her face and Kamo on her head.

"Aiden…" Kain pleaded with displeasure.

Aiden turned the object to make it visible to Kain…a picture of Izumi. "She's a cute little thing, isn't she? One of your students that has been enslaved, whom you are heroically trying to rescue. Pretty easy conquest route there, Kid…you're lucky…."

"C-Chisame, did you tell him!?"

"N-no! Well, okay, kinda…I was just talking with him about arrangements, and because of what we talked about earlier, it just kinda slipped out…he's really sharper than you'd think…."

"Sharper than you'd think, huh?" Aiden chuckled. "Sharp enough. I picked that up a while ago, even in the short time I've spent watching your group. But hearing about it made me think about that class role of criminals you've got." He twisted his fingers and a collection of cards unfolded from behind the picture, revealing Kain's complete collection of contracts. "But Kamo finally told me about these…and how's this! Eleven contracts! Well, twelve, but obviously, in this case the other kid doesn't count. Eleven girls you're contracted to, and every one of them a real beauty!"

"K-Kamo!"

"You really don't seem like the guy who'd go the 'harem' route," Aiden mentioned. "And I mean, even Kalan only made contracts with two members of the fairer sex….

"But, with this many, your future 'beloved partner' has to be in the group, right? Which one are you really after…oh, here's Momo's card! Really! How'd you convince her to kiss you? She wouldn't give me the time of day, you know, and I tried. Ah, Mai…that would be a fine pairing, don't you think, son of the Grand Archmage and the magical princess he saved? Or is it one of these two?" He held up Yue's and Nodoka's cards. "You're really blushing when I started showing them….

"Oh, and I'll be damned! If it isn't our own little Chisame! So that's how it is, huh?" He turned his suggestive smile on Chisame.

"W-why you!" Chisame burst out, reddening.

"Oh, you can deny it all you like, but you kissed him, didn't you? I bet for sure you liked it, too…."

Chisame made a very impressive flying knee strike to Aiden's face, and this action prompted him to drop the subject…although he and Kamo both spent some time chuckling at the two young teens.

"Anyway, the tournament opens tomorrow," Aiden stated. "At least, the preliminaries do. Although, with the three days of preliminary battles, yours isn't until the last day. Are you ready for it?"

"Yes!" Kain insisted.

"You won't be teamed with Kenjirô anymore…worst case scenario, you'll have to fight each other before the final round. If you do meet, can you take him?"

Kain smiled. "Kenjirô's my best friend, but also my rival…if I went easy on him and let him win, on purpose or just because of my sentiments, he'd never forgive me. If I meet Kenjirô, we're taking each other down, as real warriors."

Aiden nodded. "Fair enough. Your power seems to be spot-on…you can handle just about anything. I don't know if you're at the level to take on your _real_ rival yet, but you should at least be able to take your fights without trouble. You'll put up a fight against Byakuya, that's for certain."

"Will…Kuchiki _-san_ really be there?" Kain demanded.

Aiden smirked. "You'll see for yourself. He's the type to consider tournaments beneath him, normally—displaying his skills for the sport of lesser beings wounds his pride, or some such. But since I challenged him—proxy, through you, of course—he'll rise to the challenge. Besides…beneath that constipated cold face of his, he has a good heart, and, since you're Kalan's son, he wants to do the best for you too.

"But don't get too worried…about him or anything else. You have too many worries on your mind, now, and that is still your worst enemy. Eminus and the rest of the Obsidian Star, that girl after your alter-ego's heart, the bounty on your head, the rest of your missing girls, enemies lurking in the shadows…and, perhaps especially, the little princess (not so little anymore, but still) Mai…."

"They said they'd fended off several attempts at capturing her already," Kain mused. "Do you think…?"

"Chiu- _sama_!" One of Chisame's mouse spirits, Chikuwafu, suddenly appeared. "We've got trouble, Chiu- _sama_! I'm receiving an emergency message from Nanami- _sama_ and the _El-Hazard_!"

"The _El-Hazard_!? Are they in trouble?" Chisame barked.

 _"No,"_ came the voice of Rei from the neighborhood of the spirit, being magically broadcast through the link. _"We are due to arrive at Orimus later this evening, and our ship remains safe…but we have picked up another emergency through the White Wing badge of Miyazaki Nodoka. It seems she and her companions are under attack by the Obsidian Star about fifty kilometers east of Orimus. We are diverting our path to assist, but we likely will not make it in time."_

"Nodoka," Kain breathed. Then he turned himself that direction hunkered down, preparing to take flight….

"Hold on, Kid," Aiden murmured, grabbing his cloak and hauling him off-balance.

"W-what!?" he demanded in shock, then whirled around to face Aiden. "Hey! Don't stop me! I have to go rescue her! This is the entire reason I gained this power…so I could protect and save my friends! If I don't use it now, what have I been preparing for in the first place!?"

"Regardless, it's always a stupid idea to go charging in half-cocked," Chisame insisted. "Your training won't do you any good if you get yourself killed now. These aren't any ordinary bounty hunters we're talking about…this is the Obsidian Star!"

"If you charge in yourself, using all your power, I dare say you'll make it in time," Aiden added. "But you'll probably use up most of your power using your flight and teleportation like that. You can't risk fighting them exhausted and empty."

"Then what do you suggest I do?" Kain snapped venomously, striving to maintain self-control.

"Call Mai," Kamo suggested. "If you ride Kagutsuchi, you can probably get there fast, and save your energy in the process… _and_ you'll have backup."

8-8-8

Lucy and Nodoka hunkered down behind the rock. Lucy gritted her teeth. "T-this isn't going well," she muttered. "Where did these guys come from?"

"Aye," moaned Happy, sitting next to her.

Nodoka risked another glance up. A large bird was flying around, carrying a comatose Natsu. The other two were engaged in combat with the attackers.

Erza panted as she stared at her two foes. "You are certainly worthy of the name Titania, Queen of the Fairies," Van chuckled. "Holding off the both of us this well…you've even managed to cut me, despite being outnumbered. An S-class mage of Fairy Tail, strongest mage guild of Fiore, is certainly not a foe to be taken lightly." He raised his sword. "Still, the outcome of this is obvious. Let us finish this, Legretta."

"Of course, Commandant." The two came charging in.

Erza, dressed in her Black Wing Armor, took to the air. Like most of her armors, it was rather deceptively revealing, black (of course) with silver trim and common silver crosses, and boasted its namesake, the two black dragon wings that emerged from its back. Wielding a crystalline sword, she met Van's attack head-on and pushed him back, then made a slash that he just managed to dodge, leaving another cut across the man's shoulder. Legretta came swinging around behind her, guns raised, but Erza rounded on her with speed and sent her flying with a powerful kick to her side. Van cast a spell, causing a geyser of power to erupt underneath Erza.

Erza burst through the fountain, wincing from the effect, and Van appeared above her. He cut her down before she could react, and as she hit the ground roughly on her back, he came down on top of her and rammed his sword through her shoulder. "That's enough," he smirked. "This is over."

Grey panted, staring up at the massive man towering over him, seven and a half feet tall and over a quarter ton in weight. He was something the adventurers of Fairy Tail had never seen before—the huge dark-skinned man was dressed in baggy white pants with a black sash and a short but long-sleeved white coat with a high collar, open to reveal his chest. He carried a sword belted at his waist but seemed to ignore it, fighting only with his bare hands. His two completely unique features included a hole in the middle of his chest, literally an empty space Grey could see right through, and yet this anatomical lack didn't seem to bother the man at all. In addition, he had a kind of facemask covering his lower jaw—apparently made of an actual white jawbone, one that would have been nearly identical to his own had it been removed from his face.

"I thought these 'fairies' were supposed to be tough," the giant laughed. "But this guy's nothing much. It's child's play to clip their wings…."

Grey gritted his teeth and pressed his fist into his palm. "Ice Make Shower!" he shouted, thrusting his hands into the air. A blast of ice flew into the sky and exploding, raining razor-edged icicles over the giant. The man raised an arm to help shield his face as he stared up at the spectacle, and Grey, seizing advantage of his inattentiveness, slipped in behind him. "Ice Make Hammer!"

The big man, not even turning around, whirled his other hand Grey's direction, smashing through the ice creation and into Grey, sending him flying back and into a rock. Grey coughed out blood and slumped to the ground, quivering.

"Hey, Nagi!" the giant called up to the strange boy, standing and watching from some distance up in the air. "These things aren't any fun at all! I thought you said we'd get to enjoy ourselves!"

"Just wait, Yammy," Nagi chuckled. "If these ones don't tickle your fancy, more will be coming along shortly. That's what we're really after." He turned his head to another party member. "How's it going for you, Arietta- _chan_?"

Arietta stood on the ground, looking up at her pet bird flying Natsu around the sky. "He's pathetic," Arietta murmured. "Such a stupid, glaring weakness. No challenge at all…."

"We're completely outmatched," Lucy muttered to Nodoka. "These guys are no joke." She turned to stare at her friend seriously. "Listen, I'll distract them, and you have to get out of here. We promised to see you safely to Orimus, and no matter what, we'll keep our promise. That's the way Fairy Tail operates!"

"N-no, Lucy- _san_ , I can't just leave you! I have to help…."

"Found you," the man murmured cheerfully into Lucy's ear.

Lucy and Nodoka both leapt up and backed away from him, Lucy whirling around to face him as well, whipping her keys out. The man smiled at them. Like Yammy, he was dressed in strange white clothes, but was far smaller, only about Lucy's size. He had the same baggy white pants lined with black and the black sash, and a _katana_ just as Yammy had, but shorter and thrust through the side of his jacket just under his left arm. Like Yammy's, it was a high-collared, long-sleeve white jacket, the sleeves actually longer than his arms and almost comically concealing his hands as they drooped around them, and this coat was closed, but there were holes in his coat at his abdomen, leaving both of his lower sides naked. His short black hair, carefully-groomed in a type of bob cut, and his fine face, were both rather girlish in appearance, and he had a tattoo or something above his left eye in the shape of three purple-pink diamonds. In addition, a white barrette-like object in the shape of an upper row of teeth adorned the top-left portion of his head.

Lucy, desperate and afraid, spent no time anaylyzing him, however. "Run, Nodoka!" she insisted, and brandished her keys. "Open: Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius! Open: Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

The horse-suited archer appeared with his 'Moshi-moshi!' and Loki came into existence in his dark suit and dark glasses without any levity. "What's this…something more alien to this world than I am," Loki muttered in shock as he readied himself. "We may be over our head here, Lucy…."

"I know," Lucy muttered, gritting her teeth. "But we have to fight! For our friends, and the pride of Fairy Tail."

"I hear that. Well, let's go…Regulus."

The rings on Loki's hands began to emit a field of bright and vivid light, and Sagittarius unleashed a magic imbued missile at the invader. The enemy did a retreat, using something akin to an Instant Step to avoid the attack. Loki and Lucy moved to pursue him, but he dodged both attacks.

"Come now," he cooed, reappearing standing on the air above them. "Three-on-one is a little unfair, isn't it? But I guess you do have to take steps with me." He reached for the sword's hilt. "So I'll just take steps, too." He began to draw the blade. "Strangle, Trepadora [Climbing Vine]," he commanded.

There was an explosion of smoke, and as the three stared into it, awaiting the results of this development. Suddenly a white tentacle came lancing out of the smoke towards Loki, who created a shield of light from his rings and blocked the attack.

"Oh? You're a powerful Celestial Spirit, to be sure, to be able to block that attack," came the boy's voice from the smoke. "Very admirable! Very well done! But…."

The smoke cleared, revealing the boy again…his white suit now included a kind of breastplate, and on his back was an apparatus from which _eight_ long tentacles waved. On his head now was a white bone-like guard that wrapped across his forehead and around to form kind of jaw-guard for him…a rather semi-skull like, mask-like adornment. "…What if that attack were multiplied by _eight_?" he finished with a grin.

Then all seven of his remaining tentacles closed on Loki like a mouse trap, smashing him from all sides. Gasping out, the spirit of the lion fell, disintegrating into lights that vanished from the mortal world. "Loki!" Lucy cried in shock.

"Oops…sorry," the boy giggled. "I misspoke before. I should have said three-on- _eight_."

Another tentacle lashed out, dispatching Sagittarius, and then Lucy was snatched up into the grip of one. "Well, now that the puppets are gone, what do we do with the puppet master, hmm?"

Nodoka hid behind a nearby rock, shivering. _('W-what do I do…? I…should I run? No…could I even escape? But…I'm a mage of Fairy Tail now, too! I can't just leave them! But…I just don't have any power…if Natsu-_ san _, and Erza-_ san _and Grey-_ san _and Lucy-_ san _were all taken out so easily….')_

Suddenly a hand reached out and snatched her up. Yammy held her aloft in his meaty grip. "Ah? Hey, Nagi, is this the one we wanted? It looks like Luppi almost let her go…."

Nagi chuckled as Luppi glared at Yammy. "Well done, Yammy. Now the real fun will begin. We just have to be patient and let our prizes take the bait…."

 _('B-bait…? T-they must be after…everyone…Mai-_ san _…Kain-_ sensei _…w-what can I do!? I still can't do anything…no…I have to….')_

She managed to free her right hand partially and extended it, the odd claw adorning one finger. "Please…tell me your names!" she commanded the assembled villainy.

The six all stared at her in wondering shock. "It seems the little _ojô-chan_ is mad with fear," Van chuckled. "She's the dangerous one with the mind-reading ability, right? But she needs names to use it…as if we'll just give up our names like that…."

"N-Nodoka…" Lucy gasped. "W-what are you…?"

Nodoka carefully read the words her artifact was writing in the air before her eyes. Then she began to speak them out loud. "Yammy Riyalgo," she intoned. "Luppi Antenor. Arietta. Vandesdelca Musto Fendes. Giselle Oslo. Nagi di Artai…."

The stares intensified and the levity fled. _('That artifact on her finger!')_ Nagi thought in shock. _('I should have realized! I never expected a normal girl from Earth to find such a powerful combination of items! This is the worst-case scenario!')_

Nodoka called upon all the enhancement power from her own trainings and her contract that she could muster and almost squirted from Yammy's grip. She hit the ground hard but rolled, coming to her feet and fleeing swiftly behind the cover of the nearby boulders.

"Recapture her, quickly!" Nagi demanded harshly. "Then tear off her tongue if you have to! It's better for now if she's alive, but if there's no choice, kill her! We can't let someone as dangerous as her know of our plans! I'm counting on you!" And he vanished.

Yammy stared in shock. "What's that about? After barking those orders, he's running away…?"

"That girl has the power to read minds, as long as she knows her victim's true name," Van muttered. "She also has to be close to the person in question, or well-acquainted with them over long periods of time. Nagi had to flee to keep the Obsidian Star's secrets. As he said, we should deal with her quickly…."

"I won't stand to be insulted like that," Luppi growled. "Allow me…."

His tentacles again snaked out to find the girl, but even as he attacked she eluded the blows, moving before they had a chance to arrive. He soon realized just how powerful her mind-reading ability seemed to be—she was foreseeing all of his strikes and moving to avoid them with impressive, magically-improved speed.

"What do you mean by bait? What are you planning here?" Nodoka called.

"Clever girl," Legretta murmured. "She knows how to work her power…."

Van's thoughts were loudest about this, as one of this group's leaders, and Nodoka focused on that speech. _('Of course, Miyazaki Nodoka of the White Wings is not a combatant, but possesses a frighteningly powerful information-gathering ability that is quite a threat to us. She must be eliminated; however, as she is one of the more fragile members of Kain Lockeheart's party, she is one they will all feel compelled to protect. Those we are most interested in will be brought to save the captive…Kain Lockeheart, the Crystal Princess, and for myself, the Grandall Colonel Jade Curtis, now baby-sitting more of Kain's party….')_

 _('This is it!')_ Nodoka thought. _('I've got to get away and warn them somehow…this is tough…but for now, I can avoid capture. I just need to wait for a chance to escape…!')_

Then Yammy was suddenly looming up above her. He brought a hand down to smash her into the ground, but, perceiving his thoughts, she was able to evade. Her ability to read Van's thoughts faded as she got away from him, but the advantage was that he, probably the most dangerous combatant, was not pursuing her—like Nagi, he was afraid of his own knowledge being perceived by her. The last thoughts she heard from him stated a determination to allow the unimportant arrancar to corner and quarry her, just in case.

That suited Nodoka's purposes for the moment. It would give her time to construct a battle plan….

She stopped suddenly as a new figure appeared before her. He was thin and somewhat childlike in build, similar to Luppi, with short blond hair parted to one side. He wore a white bonelike article on his head, somewhat like a three-point tiara, and had wide purple eyes, freckles, and two visible teeth within his slightly open mouth. Like the other 'arrancar', as Van perceived them, he was dressed in white, _hakama_ and a coat, with a hole in his chest just like Yammy's, allowing one to literally see through him, and his jacket had a missing section slightly larger than that hole itself. A large sword was slung across his back. He stared at Nodoka curiously, tilting his head to the side, and emitted a strange sound, a kind of animalistic mewling.

As Nodoka hesitated over this sudden, strange new arrival, Luppi finally managed to get a tentacle around her and hauled her up. In a flash he was back near the first battlefield again. "Well, this mouse is caught. Shall I kill it now?"

"She needs to be alive, at least for now," Van instructed him. "Dead bait is less useful, after all. However, the rest of the trash are useless. They may be disposed of."

"Is that so?" Yammy growled almost happily. "Well, it's almost pointless to waste time with weaklings like these, but…." He turned towards the fallen Grey, winding up an arm.

Luppi, meanwhile, brought his two captive ladies closer to inspect them. "Hmm. So, this dangerous little mind-reader is still off-limits? But this girl is fair game…the blondie here sure has a hot bod. Makes me want…to perforate it." He held up another tentacle near Lucy's face and it sprouted a mass of sharp thorns. "Well, little mind-reader? Shall I just kill your friend in front of your eyes? Or shall I torment and torture you first?" The thorns suddenly darted for Nodoka….

And then a red blade of light streaked out, slicing through multiple tentacles, releasing both girls and cutting off the thorny tip of the threat.

The group stared at the new arrival, a man with a strange sword dressed in a cheap _kimono_ with a white-and-green-striped hat and the stilted Japanese 'clogs'. Luppi scowled petulantly at him. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Oh, no one particularly important," said the man. "Just a simple candy shop owner…."

F I N

 _Author's Note: The Furious_

 _This chapter finally highlights one of the big painful sub-plots of the Magic World Mega-Arc: the Girl in Love with the Older Hero. Or whatever you want to call it—as I noted back in Acts 4, 7, and 8, and perhaps others, Ako Izumi made her mark in Negima by being the poor girl that fell in love with 'Nagi', the magically grown-up version of Negi, first over a major date, then over a big date/event at the Festival that really sent Ako's feelings through the roof. And, as I mentioned over that time period, I adapted a character to this part…but had almost nothing of the original plotline, just a few briefly-mentioned dates. In fact, the concert was a big part of Ako's situation, but I gave the band member piece to Yukari instead._

 _But as I said at the time as well, Izumi just didn't have the angst and mental troubles of Ako, and so there wasn't as much need to go into their relationship and she wouldn't latch onto him as badly…Izumi just isn't that kind of character. She likes people, in general, and (generally) likes causing mischief with her two_ baka _friends, but not as much, which is part of the reason that she gets picked on by the other two. It isn't until she reaches this point, the magical world, that it makes sense to really have her assume Ako's role._

 _We'll get more into her mental condition that led her to this state later, but it's different than Ako, who was obsessed with being a flawed side character of no real value. But regardless, right now Kalan is the crutch Izumi needs…._

 _But despite the time paid to it, it is not the focus of the chapter—the title refers to ending encounter, which is the beginning of a big impressive battle that will showcase Kain's new powers and such…as well as introduce another crucial side character and start an important event…._

 _So, let's get to it then. That character's introduction will take place next chapter, after we learn a little more about him._

 _Keep the battle music rolling!_


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter Four: The Fury Unleashed, Part Two: Dropping the Hammer

"I really hate to get involved in things like this…I'm just not the type," Hat-and-Clogs stated airily, swinging his sword around. It was short but somewhat thick-bladed, single-edged, straight, and with an angled point. There was no particular guard on it, but the Japanese handle angled out at its bottom as well. "Still, there are things I like even less…and these people seem to be one of them…."

The little blond man was suddenly behind him, leaping onto him, one hand going for his hat. The man whirled around, creating another scarlet blast with his swing as he retreated…into the air. Like Momo, like these 'arrancar', he was now actually standing on air, not hovering, but standing in place as if the air was just another home for him.

The blond man 'stepped' into the air after him, standing oddly, not at attention or seeking to attack, at least in appearance. "You're a funny one. What are you?" To his surprise, the man raised a hand and a red-colored energy gathered there. The next instant the energy blasted out towards him in a small cannon-like shot. Hat-and-Clogs blocked it as he retreated. "That's an interesting move I've never seen before. What was that?"

Suddenly a similar shot impacted him from behind, and, gasping out in pain and shock, he collapsed to the ground below, falling out of sight behind a pillar. Yammy was standing in the air above him—and at this moment still had full view of him—and laughed as red energy crackled around his fist. "I'll tell you what that was! It's called a 'bala'! It's a shot of an arrancar's spiritual pressure…not as powerful as our trademark 'cero', but ten times faster!" He unleashed another bala on top of the man's position, and, laughing, continued to rain them down on him. "Hey! Wonderweiss! Good job distracting him! Do you want to play, too, or do you mind if I just pound him to dust? Ha!"

Luppi stared dourly at the hulking figure. "I wanted to get that man, too, before those two stepped in. Oh well." He turned his smile on the two girls, who were once again in his tentacles. "Well, you two are pretty pathetic, really. That strange man just saved you, and you've gotten yourselves caught again. Oh, well…too bad for you…."

And then another explosion interrupted him. Four forms came appearing out of thin air and crashing down on top of him, causing him to drop his burdens. With this latest distraction, a blue cat with wings came flying in at high speed and collided with the bird carrying Natsu. As it fell stunned from the impact, dropping its burden, Happy caught his friend and flew to safety with him.

Happy had timed his attack well; due to the dramatic manner of the newcomers' arrival, no one but Arietta paid him any attention. Instead, they were focused on those newcomers…Nodoka and Lucy were now kneeling behind the dramatic silhouettes of Akari, Kiami, Hikaru, and Delryn.

"Are you all right, Honya- _chan_?" Akari demanded of the girl. "We've come to rescue you!"

"N-no…" Nodoka gasped. "Y-you can't…it's…!"

Suddenly magic circles appeared underneath the pair and they vanished, reappearing at the feet of Legretta as she held up a talisman. "I remember you three, at least…that means our plan is working. Sorry, but I already marked these two earlier…."

"That's pretty low," Delryn growled. "What, you're so scared of us you're trying to use those girls as hostages?"

"Nothing of the sort," Van said as he used magic to restrain the pair. "This is bait, not a hostage. In fact, you should be grateful…I'm preserving them with this action…."

"Be careful," Kiami murmured. "This one is strong…and he seems to have a trick up his sleeve…."

"Be careful all you like…you are quite correct. Your turn, Dist."

Dist's maniacal laugh sounded from around them. "It's time, then! Let's prepare the fireworks!"

A massive magic circle suddenly appeared under the feet of the newcomers, and immediately they found themselves rooted in place. "H-huh!? W-what's this!?" Akari demanded, quite put off.

"Some kind of enchantment…" Hikaru mused.

Delryn swore. "Enchantment, nothing! This is the highest-level magical trap…an anti-army magical landmine!"

Lightning erupted in a storm, completely obscuring the four youths. Dist appeared in his chair, hovering above them, laughing maniacally. "That's right! A carefully-refined version of this weaponry from the war! You little brats are surrounded on all sides for a hundred meters by a storm of those powerful lightning bolts for a hundred seconds! No matter how skilled and cheeky you brats are, no matter what defensive measures you have, you can't withstand this…."

Nodoka called the names of her friends in despair as she watched.

Van reached down and grabbed Nodoka by the back of her hair and hauled her head up. He placed a finger to the back of her neck and unleashed a spell, and Nodoka heard the 'voices' transmitted from her hidden books via the 'Reading Ear' to go silent. "This counterspell should put an end to your dangerous power for now. You're still useful as bait…these ones are a nice bonus, but they're not even the ones we're after…but I'm sure you already know that, don't you, little girl? Don't worry…all your friends will be joining you soon…."

And then the lightning bolts suddenly began to slow down their strikes. Dist looked over the effect in surprise. "What? It's stopping way too early…none of my calculations should have gone wrong…."

Finally there was a kind of anti-explosion, a soft 'pop', and all the lightning stopped. There, hovering in the middle of the swirling dust, in front of the other four gasping youths, was….

"M-Mai- _san_!" Nodoka cried in shock.

"So the big prize has already come," Van chuckled. "The Crystal Princess herself, eh? Well, well…that makes things easier…."

"If this magic is useless, then it's my turn!" Luppi demanded, stepping forward again. "All these interruptions are annoying. So, let's play together!"

His tentacles streaked towards the stoic Mai…but then he was suddenly flying, crashing through rocks and disappearing from sight. Kain settled lightly upon the ground, energy crackling around him. "I'd advise you to take your hands off both of those girls now," he told Van flatly.

Van smiled slightly at him. "You must be the whelp of the Grand Archmage. Eminus said you weren't worth anything…but to send an arrancar flying like that is no small feat. Obviously you've been busy since your defeat at the Gateport. But Nagi and I prepared well." There was a high-pitched whining sound as nine tears to space gaped opened in the air and nine more white-suited figures stepped through. "Let's see how this goes, shall we?"

Kain observed them carefully. _('The big guy, that strange kid wandering around through the air, the octopus I sent flying…and these nine. Their energy signature is alien…they feel almost like a hollow, and almost like Momo. What are they? Regardless, they're using_ reiki _, spiritual energy, and_ reiatsu _, spiritual pressure, not mana or_ ki _. That makes this tricky….')_

The nine began to advance, using a stepping maneuver similar to Momo's flash step. Kain and Mai moved to intercept them, with the swiftly-recovered Akari, Kiami, Hikaru and Delryn moving to back them up.

Van watched the fight with interest as his new fighters dueled with the six children. _('What wondrous power these children possess…not only is the son of the Grand Archmage spectacular, but the followers he has attracted are first-rate as well….')_

"Commandant, behind you!"

Van, hearing Legretta's warning, managed to dodge the ice, fire, and swords that suddenly came his way. Natsu, Grey and Erza all now stood protectively in front of Lucy and Nodoka, staring determinedly at him. "Oh? I thought we had all but eliminated you…you're certainly durable."

"Don't underestimate Fairy Tail!" Erza barked. "You may think to pluck our wings, but we will never bow our heads to you!"

"We won't let anyone hurt our _nakama_ ," Grey snapped. "We'll smash you to pieces for trying."

"Nobody lays their hands on our guild and gets away with it," Natsu breathed. "We'll show you why Fairy Tail is the most feared guild of Fiore!"

8-8-8

One lone arrancar appeared in front of Kain, standing in the air, dressed similarly to Yammy in an open white jacket in addition to his baggy white pants. In his case, the jacket was very short, still had a high upturned collar, and had its sleeves rolled up as well, leaving most of his torso, including another of those disturbing holes, completely uncovered. While not as huge as Yammy, he was tall and muscular, with light spiky blue hair and light blue eyes with some strange green markings below them. Like all the others, he wore a white bone-like adornment on his head, in this case a very distinct right jawbone (top and bottom sections) located over that portion of his face, with wicked teeth within it.

Kain stared at him levelly. "You're a strange creature. What are you, exactly?"

Before his foe could reply, a massive mechanical golem suddenly rose up behind Kain. "Ha! You left yourself wide open!" Dist crowed. "Go, Kaiser Dist DSX! Smash that boy to pieces!"

Kain glanced over his shoulder at it, preparing a spell, but to his surprise a figure suddenly appeared and interposed himself between them, catching the golem's huge mace-like hand on his blade. "What a cheap shot," Delryn muttered. "So, you're the famous Kain Lockeheart- _sensei_ , huh?" Kain stared back at the man, really taking him in for the first time and identifying the similar characteristics. "Well, you seem tough enough…but that guy there seems the toughest of them by far. You think you can handle him?"

Kain turned back to the foe confronting him. "If you can handle that 'bot, I'll deal with this guy. Just worry about yourself."

Delryn chuckled. "Suit yourself. This quack'll be fun to play with." He threw off the golem and sent it flying with a savage swing to clear it from the area, then followed after it to continue his assault.

Kain stared at the man before him. "You didn't attack during that distraction. That was kind of you."

"Kind?" The man threw his head back and laughed, and, creepily, his mask laughed with him. "Hell, don't make those kinds of assumptions. I don't give a damn about honor or any of that lame crap. I just find you interesting, and it'd be too disappointing to kill you when you aren't watching. I have to see the fear in your eyes as I tear out your throat.

"But I will be 'kind' enough to answer your questions. I am Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, an arrancar, a fusion of a hollow and a _shinigami_. I am one of the rulers of Hueco Mundo, the Hollow World."

Kain glanced at the sword at his side. "A fusion? So that sword you carry is a _zanpaku-tô_ of some sort?"

"Who knows?" Grimmjow replied, shrugging. "If you fight well enough to live, maybe you'll learn a few things first-hand!"

He dove in to attack. Kain blocked the attack and winced at the strength of it. He retreated backwards into the air and Grimmjow pursued him, striking out again. Kain dodged this time, but even as he avoided the attack Grimmjow vanished. He was now behind Kain, and Kain barely blocked his strike and went flying to the ground.

Kain landed easily and retreated back into the air with little concern. "That was interesting. Not quite an instant step, or a _shunpo_ …but essentially the same."

Grimmjow, in response, appeared behind him again. Kain disappeared before this attack, however, appearing behind Grimmjow this time. He grabbed the arrancar's arm with his left hand and twisted it into a quick lock, then brought an elbow to his ribs. He winced as the elbow rebounded off as if it had struck the hardest of stone. Grimmjow reached a hand over his back, grabbed Kain by the shirt, and threw him away. Kain managed to get his aerial movement under control. He stood to observe Grimmjow carefully again. _('What's that? It was like hitting solid steel, or something even harder. What is his skin made of?')_

8-8-8

"It's called 'hierro' [iron skin]," the arrancar with the long mustache told Mai. "An arrancar's skin is enhanced by his _reiatsu_ to be harder than any armor. You won't be able to break that armor with normal attacks."

Mai rubbed her hand as she glared at the arrancar, Patros, and the one next to him, who introduced himself as Shaolong Kufang. She had attacked without her _kanka_ and was now regretting it due to the smarting in her limb. Still, she was unaware of the capabilities of the pair and had decided to keep as much as she could in reserve while testing them—she had picked up quite a few habits from Kain during the long training sessions over the summer, and had even used Kagutsuchi only enough to get them to the battlefield so that she could call on him one more time if necessary. So far, the fight looked troublesome….

"Your power is great, Crystal Princess, but it is ineffective against us," Shaolong informed her. "You are designed to break down mana and all related energies, including _ki_ , but _reiki_ and _reiatsu_ that _hinigami_ and arrancarproduce bypass that ability—you were not built to rule over them."

Mai smiled humorlessly at him. "I guess that's the truth…but you shouldn't underestimate me. I haven't been spending these last three months surviving bounty hunters for nothing, after all!"

She powered up her _kanka_ and braced herself for battle. Patros chuckled. "I admit you're probably right about that. We shouldn't underestimate a figure like her…so we, too, should fight with our all from the beginning." He put a hand to his sword and began to draw it. "Pollute…Gerifalte [Gyrfalcon]."

Shaolong likewise drew his sword. "Snip…Tijereta [Earwig]."

Smoke engulfed the creatures, and when it cleared, they were…changed. The white skull-like mask remnants on their heads had grown to mostly cover their faces, and both were more armored. Patros' upper body was covered by a machine-like shell, with two hoops in the apparent position of his arms. Shaolong wore an exoskeleton with a breastplate-like armor, a blade-tipped tail emerging from the back of his helm/mask (rather in the shape of an earwig's tail), and had long, razor-sharp claws adorning his hand.

The power that flowed from them stunned Mai. _('This is…no normal power-up…they're completely different…!')_

"Let's try a level 3 attack," Patros intoned, and one of the hoops on his body swiveled up, opening and revealing a hole. Energy built in and fired from the hole at Mai. She just managed to dodge aside, deflecting the attack with her shield, but the impact sent her tumbling to the ground….

Where she was met by Shaolong, who slashed at her with his long, razor-sharp claws. The blades cut across her chest, tearing through her battle uniform and drawing blood. She retreated away again, clutching at the wound, panting, watching the pair.

"We are the arrancar," Shaolong informed her. "The culmination of forbidden research conducted to surpass the limits of two polar opposite creatures of great spiritual power. There is no way you can stand against us. And the one who is our strongest, the one fighting that red-haired boy, is stronger than all of us combined. Your doom is at hand…but worry not, for you will not die here with your friends. The Obsidian Star requires you to return with them…."

8-8-8

Akari threw herself into battle with the two largest arrancar, the big fat one named Nakeem and the muscular giant with the half-long-red-half-short-black hair named Edrad. They responded to her attacks with their own fists, and she dueled with them, employing her usual repertoire of varied techniques to throw them off.

She withdrew from the very first exchange and assumed one of her odd, wide stances, spreading her limbs out in separate directions, carefully balanced. Her two opponents sized her up in response. "Not bad," Edrad murmured with a wide grin. "I thought a little human girl would be dead instantly, but you not only went toe-to-toe with us, you made contact with our hierro with your bare hands and have nothing to show for it. You're pretty tough…far from an ordinary human."

"I certainly wasn't raised by 'ordinary humans'," Akari replied with a smile. "You're both very tough…I haven't had a real fight like this in quite some time, even with the adventures I've had so far in the magical world. I'll have to be totally serious here…."

She exploded towards them. They prepared to receive her charge, but she suddenly vanished. _('She's fast…that's not the same as our sonìdo_ [echoing movement] _, but it might as well be!')_ Edrad thought. She was now standing behind the dumbstruck Nakeem, and planted a fist right into his kidney. Despite the holes they had, these monstrous humanoids seemed human enough in their weak points, and he began to buckle from the pain, but Akari didn't let up. She moved right up in close to him, then swung her legs up to grapple him around the neck. Focusing all her _ki_ in her legs, she pulled him up and slammed him acrobatically into the ground behind her, shattering it in a large area around her.

As she began to pick herself up, however, Nakeem suddenly leapt up and lashed out, connecting and sending her flying. He used his _sonìdo_ to get in front of her, but to his surprise she recovered and stepped back behind and above him even as she tumbled. An elbow came dropping down across the back of his skull, and as Akari finished lighting upon the ground, she danced up in high, sweeping, twirling kicks. Each kick sent Nakeem higher and higher into air, until she slammed him back into the ground with a powered-up punch. She then finished by driving a knee into him at full power, and rose shortly thereafter from the still, broken form.

Edrad regarded her with bemusement. "Even if it was Nakeem, it's amazing that a girl like you can do that to an arrancar." He began to draw his sword. "I thought I'd be able to handle this just with my fists, but I guess I should actually take you seriously…."

8-8-8

Kiami's two bodies dueled the separate entities of D. Roy, the maniacally-grinned tooth monster, and the blond pretty boy, Ylfordt. Both found the girl's split bodies, seemingly unlimited supply of throwing weapons, and acrobatic agility to be quite perplexing…but her attacks were also quite weak, and neither one was sustaining much damage.

"Interesting techniques," D. Roy said as the _kunoichi_ and her clone withdrew from the combat. "You're one of those weird humans they call 'ninja', right? But you're nothing but a little game to be played, not a real threat…."

"Enough fooling around," Ylfordt barked. "You're so pathetic, D. Roy. You're the weakest of us, but you play around as if you're all that. Let's just kill the wench and move on, before all the interesting ones are killed."

Kiami smiled in bemusement. "You're certainly confident…well, to be fair, you are certainly powerful. But…that one, D. Roy, is the 'weakest here', then?"

"So…strategizing?" Ylfordt said sarcastically. "Because I just admitted to being stronger, you'll fight me yourself and leave your clone to handle D. Roy? You can try, if you like…it doesn't matter what you do, you're going to die here…."

"Ah, I'm so obvious! Already figured out," Kiami sighed. "Well, it seems all I can do is try my best…."

She split herself into a dozen clones and came charging both of them en masse. "Only one's the real one!" Ylfordt barked, his sword out, preparing for the brawl. "That's the only one you have to worry about!"

"Stop lecturing me! I'll leave you behind, bro!"

They readied themselves for the fight…but then all twelve Kiamis vanished. As the two arrancar stared in shock, one appeared off to the side and hurled a gigantic four-pointed star-like blade their direction. They scattered, dodging the missile, but then another Kiami appeared in its path, caught it and sped it along towards D. Roy. D. Roy dodged again as Ylfordt chuckled over his strategic victory, but a third Kiami then intercepted the redirected the missile again, this time towards him. He dodged aside, and yet again a Kiami clone changed the course of the weapon.

The tempo was increasing, so that while at first they were hesitating from counterattacking just to prepare the best interruption, they were now forced to dodge continuously. Finally, nearly simultaneously, Ylfordt and D. Roy found their retreats blocked as they were suddenly snagged by wires. "W-what's this!?"

Too late they realized that Kiami's giant _shuriken-_ like weapon had been trailing a line all this time that now filled the sky of their battlefield, and they were caught in it like in the spider's web. Kiami appeared in twelve copies around them, smirking. "That's a fine catch," she said, her words disturbingly being passed along from clone to clone. They gestured in unison, and the lines suddenly sprouted, like flowers, a collection of Japanese prayer strips, these papers depicting the _kanji_ for 'explode'. A second collection of identical gestures caused them to, indeed, explode in a cascade wave of destruction all around the two arrancar….

They both burst from their prison using their power and their swords, narrowly avoiding the destructive force. They glared down at Kiami in fury. "You little bitch!" D. Roy snapped at her (them?). You think you can take us out that easily…!?"

"D. Roy, behind you!" Ylfordt cried in vain.

D. Roy's face was almost comically quizzical as it turned around, just in time to see the spinning razorblade of doom before it came back, slicing off his head cleanly. It sailed off out of sight as the body collapsed, disintegrating, to the ground, and Kiami let go of the cord she'd used to reel in the weapon so she could catch it.

"That was great," Kiami said. "Against that hierro, a normal weapon from Earth would have shattered easily, but that magical _Fûma shuriken_ I picked up did the trick. I'm glad I found it…." She turned to Ylfordt. "Now that the deadly distraction is out of the way, I can focus all of my power into sending you to him."

Ylfordt grimaced in anger, his forehead veins throbbing. "Don't underestimate me, you wench!" he cursed her. He held his sword up. "Skewer! Del Toro [The Bull]!"

Kiami's eyes widened in surprise as the man emerged from his release covered by white armor, including a bull-like horned helmet or mask with massive shoulder pads. "Now, you die," he growled threateningly at her.

Hikaru danced around the red-haired effeminate Menis and the burly Aldegor. "This method of combat is quite annoying," he remarked, recalling his duel with Momo at the tournament. "Standing on the air like that…and my sword style is the least efficient to use in the air."

"Some sort of sour grapes complaint?" Menis teased.

"Let's use our resurrecións and finish this fool quickly," growled Aldegor.

"Right. Stab, Erizo [Hedgehog]!"

"Get them, Jibali [Boar]!"

Menis became a nearly entirely-covered hollow-like creature with a large, eyeless alien mask with a massive mouth, a tail, and two tentacle-like appendages for arms. Aldegor had the usual type of massive armor with eight hinged appendages emerging from his back. Hikaru observed them coolly. "Hmm…resurreción, you call it? Your swords cause you to transform?"

"Arrancar are a fusion of hollow and _shinigami_ ," Aldegor explained kindly. "We take upon ourselves the powers of _shinigami_ by breaking our masks, resuming portions of our humanity and sealing our original hollow powers into the shape of a sword. Via our resurreción, we actually return to our original hollow powers, but greatly magnified from how we were before. In this state, this will be over quickly!"

Aldegor swept in and attacked with one of his hinged appendages, enlarging it and sweeping it towards Hikaru. He dodged aside, and Menis stepped in behind him. He caught the attack with his half-drawn sword and pushed off. An _iai_ strike made a cut across Menis' arms as he fell away.

"Quickly?" Hikaru replied with a small smile as he took a stance opposite the pair. "I hope not. This kind of battle is exactly the reason I came to this magical world…."

8-8-8

Yammy actually 'sat' on the air, staring down at the various battles, scowling. "Man, this sucks. That hat-and-clogs guy didn't last long, and even though there were a whole bunch more, they're all being taken by the stupid newcomers. I was here first…but it's too much trouble to get in the way, or go looking for others. Man, what a pain…."

He turned his gaze to Wonderweiss, who was pandering around the air (at low altitude) on, sort of, all fours, pawing at a butterfly. "Hey, Wonderweiss, you new guy! What are you doing?"

Wonderweiss seemed to not hear or to ignore the giant, and continued his innocent pursuit of the insect. Sighing, Yammy set his chin on his hand and his elbow on his knee and glared down at the fights below.

8-8-8

Three-on-two was a more interesting battle than the one-on-two Erza fought against Van and Legretta before. Without Legretta to back him up, Erza, even with her previous injuries, was a far more even swordswoman against him than she was before, and the constant shifting with Natsu and Grey only added to their discomfiture. The three seemed impossible to keep down, sustaining injuries and recovering with superhuman durability…and gave out more than their share as well.

Natsu found his next attack cut off as he was attacked from behind by Arietta's monsters. "I won't let you hurt Van!" she insisted. She raised the doll in her hands. "Go!" she commanded her friends, and the leonine monster and the blue raptor lashed out at Natsu.

"Open! Gate of the Giant Crab!"

Lucy's summon unleashed the strange crab-man, with his dark shades and dual-wielding scissors. It charged into the two beasts and in short order defeated them…by shorning them of all fur and feathers. He posed as the naked animals lay on the ground, pathetic and comatose. "That's a cut above the usual, _ebi_ ," he said with finality.

Happy, now hiding safely behind cover with the rescued Nodoka, sighed. "That one's still as uncool as ever…."

Lucy wasn't done, however. As Arietta stared in shock, she grabbed another key. "Open! Gate of the Maiden!"

The pink-haired maid, Virgo, adorned with her manacles on her wrist, appeared before her. "Do you wish to punish me, mistress?" she asked almost hopefully.

"Enough of that! I need your help right now! Capture that little girl right now before she can do anything else!"

"I see. Spica Lock it is." Virgo began to twirl at supersonic speed, becoming a blur, and drilled into the earth, vanishing in short order. As Arietta began to round on Lucy, Virgo suddenly appeared behind the girl, and, with an expansive gesture, sealed Arietta inside a massive boulder.

8-8-8

"Strike first, _Raijin_!" Delryn's sword transformed as he took it to the machine. It was durable and well-built, but with his sword released his speed was so much greater it was almost comical. Dist, floating in the air in that strange chair of his, watched on in concern while the swordsman beat on his machine.

Still, it was not easy. Delryn dodged one mighty swing of its mace-arm and dashed underneath, swinging up. His blade gouged across the shell of the machine, scarring it but causing no more than superficial damage. A hatch opened and a gun barrel extended, but Delryn had already retreated before the blast of magical energy took him.

Delryn ran around the side of the machine, pulling a magical charm from his coat. He tossed it at the golem, and it burst into a surge of electricity. The bolts struck the machine rapidly but futily, causing no more apparent harm than his sword strike. He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Dist laughed. "You fool! Just because it's a machine doesn't mean it can't be well-grounded against magical lightning!"

"Well, this will be a little more annoying," Delryn muttered.

Before he could start his next attack, the Kaiser Dist went on the offensive. It raised one hand that had some sort of barrel in it and fired a missile. Delryn dodged aside, but the robot was gaining speed as it began to charge him. Multiple weapons began to sprout and blast attacks that were part-tech and part-magic his direction. The shots grew more and more skilled, as the robot's AI (or Dist's magical remote control, whichever the case was) seemed highly effective. The shots began to herd Delryn into disadvantageous positions, not allowing him to use his speed to escape directly.

Finally, after being put quite off-balance by one near-dodge, the machine suddenly surrounded itself with a bubble of translucent magical energy and charged at Delryn. Seeing the incoming cannon ball, Delryn managed and set himself and charge in, despite his impossible position, muttering an arcane phrase under his breath. The two forces met and surged past each other. The armor on Delryn's left arm cracked, shattered and blew off into nothingness, revealing his bare arm as blood started running down the side of it, but two of the Kaiser Dist's four arms fell off, severed (in that slow, dramatic anime fashion).

Delryn, seemingly ignoring the wound on his arm, rounded on the machine somewhat slowly, chanting again and making a sign as he put his hand to his chest. Then, just as he finished lowering herself as slow as a glacier into a charging position, he rocketed in at maximum speed. Faster than the eye could see, he planted a sword in the robots central torso and leapt up, tearing open a hole, then cut the other two arms off with two quick slashes. A flurry of slashes followed and Delryn finally leapt back, standing straight after landing and flicking his sword out to the side dramatically. After a moment's pause, the frozen machine sprouted the lines which completely bifurcated it and it fell to pieces, one piece at a time.

Dist stared at the mess, twitching, and Delryn turned slowly to him. "Well, Doc? Are you next?"

8-8-8

Kiami just managed to dodge Ylfordt's charge, but his horn caught her arm and opened a gash along its length. She danced back, clutching at the injury, warily watching the new beast.

Ylfordt rounded on her. "Do you see, you little brat? Your human tricks are no match for the might of an arrancar!" He opened his mouth and a red surge of energy started to build there.

She vanished before the blast struck, and it leveled part of the terrain where she had been. She reappeared in the air above him, using her right arm to inscribe the blood on her left into a series of symbols. She then ran a hand across the symbols, and the blood actually evaporated into the air, transforming into smoke and then exploding into a chain.

Ylfordt swung his head up to intercept her, but she danced through the air even as she fell, flinging the chain around Ylfordt's neck. Ylfordt howled and began to swing his head around, whipping the chain through the air, with Kiami dangling futily at the end of it. He brought her flying towards a rock, but Kiami managed to plant her feet on it and start running along with no impact before leaping off, still bound to the fate of the chain she held.

"Lightning Style: Power Surge Jutsu!"

A great blast of electricity flowed up the chain from her hands and reached Ylfordt, charging through him visibly. Roaring in rage, he again whipped his head, throwing it up to send the girl and her bond flying high into the air, then slinging them back down again.

Kiami vanished before she struck the ground, dropping the chain, then reappeared almost instantly some distance away. She pulled a small, thin sword from her usual pocket (i.e. nowhere) and assumed a guarded stance. Ylfordt roared and charged in….

And then used his sonìdo to step behind Kiami and slammed her back with a savage punch. Kiami gasped out in shock as she began to fly…and then transformed into a boulder that burst to pieces and collapsed uselessly to the ground.

"What!? A substitution!? Where is she? Behind? Above?" He glanced around as he pondered her position.

A hand suddenly shot out of the earth and grabbed his foot. "Below. Earth Style: Ravenous Earth Jutsu."

Suddenly he began to fall into the earth as if it were a body of water, dropping down helplessly into the rock and sand until he was neck-deep. Kiami appeared above the sealed pit and grabbed the back of her victim's head. She prepared to plunge that blade into the back of his skull….

With another roar, Ylfordt tore himself free of the prison, the force of his emergence throwing Kiami off. She recovered as he hauled himself out of her pit, and set himself to charge again.

Kiami fled in retreat as he came charging in, bellowing in rage. In near-desperation Kiami drew a single _kunai_ and hurled it….

…And it buried itself into Ylfordt's eye. He was instantly silenced and hit the ground, bouncing and rolling form his momentum as his conscious, intentional activity all ceased. Kiami stared in bemusement at the body as it began to disintegrate. "Well…not a very heroic end to the battle, but in this case, I'll take what I can get…."

8-8-8

Edrad, with his Volcánica resurreción released, was now a massive monster with huge arms, adorned at the shoulders by two massive fins. Flame erupted from these fins as he charged up his power to unleash flame-powered punches that struck like volcanic eruptions. He stared down at the tiny girl opposing him. "What is your name, girl? I may as well carry your name with me," he offered her.

Akari slammed her fists together and bowed. "Heiro Akari, disciple of Hokushinryû. I will be your opponent." She assumed her natural stance, her jeet kune do stance, her right hand extended and turned to the front.

"Edrad Liones, arrancar of Las Noches." He then stepped up to her and brought his fist down. Akari dodged and watched with appreciation as the blow shattered the ground and turned the fragments molten all in one punch.

He stepped into her retreat path and slammed her from behind. An explosion of fire followed the impact, and Akari was consumed by the flames. Nothing was left when they faded an instant later…but Akari then stepped up behind Edrad and, dropping to the ground, planted one hand and used it to push herself up. She turned this into a kick that hit Edrad from behind, sending him flying into the air. She stepped into the air to intercept him and began to punish him with rapid-fire boxing punches, alternating jabs to the face, keeping him stunned. Eventually one right hook sent him flying back down into the ground. Akari quickly followed, using a step to stop her fall and reposition herself and charging in from the side towards her prone opponent.

Edrad's gigantic fist came swinging to intercept her, coming out of nowhere and connecting perfectly. She went flying back into a rock pillar in a ball of fire, shattering it.

Edrad picked himself up as Akari emerged slowly from the rubble, coughing and smoking. She seemed to almost stagger as she pulled herself to her feet, coughing up a bit of blood. "What an incredible power," she muttered with a smile. "One hit can do this much to me. Still…."

She didn't seem to move as Edrad came charging in again, bringing his fist down onto her. Suddenly she raised her head, her eyes alight, and met Edrad's power-filled punch with one of her own. The _reiatsu_ of the arrancar clashed with her _ki_ for a long moment before Edrad was repulsed, his armored hand cracking and partially shattering as he staggered back. "Your punches aren't as strong as Armstrong- _sensei_ 's!"

She charged in towards him, and as he moved to meet her, she suddenly stepped behind him. "You aren't as tactical as Ogata- _sensei_!" She jumped up and grabbed him by the hair, then, planting her feet in his back, she performed a complicated throw to toss him to the ground.

She then dropped an elbow on his stomach. "You aren't as tenacious as McTavish- _sensei_!"

Edrad gasped, then hurled another punch Akari's way. She blocked it, and the force of the blow threw her away again, but she recovered quickly and moved in to meet the man as he rose. "You aren't as fierce as Quan- _sensei_!" She began to unleash a storm of attacks on him, too quickly for him to stop or retaliate against.

A series of kicks low, mid, and high, shattered his guard, and she leapt into the air and turned over before unleashing another kick that sent him flying away and into another pillar, one large enough to stop him dead. She then stepped in front of him, crouching low, gathering her _ki_ for one massive strike. "And you aren't as passionate as Peres- _sensei_." She slammed him in the stomach, driving the fist in, causing the adorned armor of his resurreción form to shatter. Then the rock behind him shattered, blowing to pieces and scattering to the wind.

She stepped back and watched as Edrad finally collapsed, first to his knees and then to his face, his body slowly shattering (literally) to pieces. "Heiro…Akari, was it?" he murmured with a small smile on his face. "I'm glad I asked…." And then he was gone, vanishing into dust and fading away, just as the rest of his kin.

Akari stared down at the vacant spot, panting heavily, and then fell backwards to the ground, her limbs all spread, still panting. She laughed and then winced. "T-that was…the kind of fight I've been waiting for…for sure…."

8-8-8

Aldegor, his hinge-like appendages wrapped around him, making him into a rolling ball, descended upon Hikaru. Hikaru caught the living boulder with his sheathed blade, struggling against it and finally stopping its momentum. As he retracted his shell pieces to prepare a new offensive, Hikaru drew his blade in one great slash, shattering all the upper appendages at once, and then following with a series of faster strikes that destroyed the rest of them. He then leapt up and used a mighty kick to send the arrancar flying. Sheathing his sword, he then turned as Menis came in to attack, his tentacles lashing out.

Hikaru tossed his sheathed sword into the air, reached out, and grabbed the incoming tentacle. He then pulled Menis in, right into this other fist as it went flying forward. He let go and allowed Menis to fly backwards through a few small stone pillars, and then caught his blade. Setting himself, he charged in, cutting Menis in two from the draw and then sheathing the blade before the arrancar could even begin to defend himself. He fell in half, disintegrating silently as he went.

Aldegor, his form broken and effectively useless, stared at the swordsman in shock as he turned slowly his way. "H-human? This guy? No way…no human could do something like this…not to us…."

He turned and began to flee, and Hikaru stared after him. Then he set himself again, lowering his body and putting his hand to his hilt, then drew it as fiercely as he could. The _ki-_ charged strike sent a rending blade from the sword that chased down Aldegor and cut him in half from behind.

"The strongest and weakest of all creatures," Hikaru murmured as he sheathed his blade. "That is the human."

8-8-8

Mai dodged the blast from Patros and stepped away as Shaolong moved to take her from behind. A wave of her hand sent a cascade of fireballs towards her foes, who were forced to scatter from the attacks.

They regrouped and considered the girl. She was pretty much getting the worst of it—panting as she hovered there, some of her clothes shredded and some obvious wounds underneath—but there was something obvious about the situation that disconcerted them. "She's getting stronger every second that we fight," murmured Shaolong. "Even as we injure her, her attacks become stronger, her moves better, her speed greater…this must be the power of the Crystal Princess…."

Mai smiled at them. "Yeah…that's pretty much true. I still don't have all the Crystal Princess' memories or power, you see, even after all my training and everything. But situations like this…tend to bring it out. I guess that means you'll have to finish me off quickly, huh?"

"Taunting us?" Patros scoffed. "Very well. We are not supposed to harm the Crystal Princess if we are able, but if you wish to dismiss our power, I shall give you a full taste: my level twenty attack." He exploded with an aura of power as the attack built, and then his left 'arm' opened itself to unleash the attack.

As he was preparing it, Mai set herself, apparently in preparation, half-turning to set her right side towards him and extending a hand as if to prepare a shield to block the attack. With her left hand she casually reached out and touched a large boulder that was just behind her. Then, as the attack came, she suddenly vanished. She reappeared in the air above him and hurled the boulder, which she had taken with her…and the rock slammed into place, caught in between the two sections of separated hoop and preventing the 'arm' from closing again.

"You _iaijutsu_ is too obvious," she told him. "I've seen Hikaru- _kun_ fight and train as well, so I know how it works. You build up your power in the sheath and unleash it with the draw. Even in that form, your attack works the same way—and by actually assigning levels to the amount of power you use, you're making it way too easy to see through. The bigger the attack, the more that 'blade' has to open out of its sheath. And if it can't go back in…you can't use that power at all." She then wrapped herself in fire and charged into Patros, slamming into and through him, blasting him to pieces. The flame evaporated away as she slowed to a halt and turned to watch his final moments.

Shaolong watched her stoically and then raised a clawed hand as he smiled. "Most impressive. This has been a worthy battle. I think I foresee the end, but it is my duty to see it through." He charged in at her.

Mai dodged and blocked the attacks, then finally grabbed one arm and then the other. She threw her head forward, connecting and shattering Shaolong's mask. She then let go and sent him flying with a double handful of flame.

As usual, a convenient rock stopped his sailing, and as he picked himself up Mai flew into the air above him. He raised a hand and the dark chaos energy of the cero began to build. Mai responded by gathering all her fire in the palm of her own hand and pouring the whole of her _kanka_ energy into it. As Shaolong fired, she threw the ball in, and it pierced the oncoming energy and burst through it to collide with Shaolong. The flames of the ensuing explosion died quickly, but Shaolong didn't linger much longer before he, too, fell to dust.

8-8-8

Grimmjow's sharp, almost claw-like nails raked across Kain's shoulder, causing blood to spray from the cut. He followed it up by kicking him down and away. Kain skipped off the ground and somersaulted in mid-air to land crouched on his feet, but Grimmjow was already there. He grabbed Kain by his face and held his other hand in the air, powering his cero. "I guess this is it, kid. Goodbye."

To his surprise, Kain reached up with one hand and powered energy of his own as Grimmjow released the attack. They flew away from each other as a result of the explosion, Grimmjow's hand burned and smoking. Kain's hand was also smoking as he settled himself to hover again, but there were no recognizable burns there.

"You're actually really tough," Kain consented. "And I'm not used to your power at all…I have only limited experience with _reiatsu_ , really, and pretty much none with real hollow powers. I guess I should get serious…you'll be a great test of just how far I've come."

Grimmjow stared at him in shock, then let a manic grin return to his face. "You sure are cocky, aren't you, you little brat? Fine, then! It won't be any fun if you don't get serious…bring it on like you mean it, so I can kill you without regrets!"

Kain was suddenly standing behind him, back-to-back. He was now throbbing with his True _Kanka_ power…a power he didn't have activated previously. "You don't even know what you're asking for. But I'll show you, all the same."

Grimmjow rounded on him, but Kain stayed in the shadow of his back and then punched out an elbow to hit him in the side, sending him flying again. Kain turned to face him as Grimmjow righted himself. The mage raised a hand above his head. A series of circles, two-dimensional arcane images laying at all sorts of angles and intersecting evenly, appeared in the air above his hand. He then pointed that hand at Grimmjow, the circle following with it, and unleashed a slew of magical bolts, a whole swarm of missiles that closed in on Grimmjow.

Grimmjow dodged and stepped back, retreating, but still the swarm finally caught up with him, engulfing him in an explosion. He threw his hands out to use his power to negate the last vestiges of it and turned his gaze back skyward. Kain, however, wasn't there.

Then he was floating behind Grimmjow again, one finger pressed up against the man's back with his thumb up and 'cocked'. He released his magic again, a simple burst of force that sent Grimmjow crashing again into the ground with great force.

As Grimmjow began to pick himself up, Kain continued staring down at him, his expression so unmoved that Nodoka, turning her attention back and forth between her guild and her _sensei_ was almost chilled by it. _('I-is this…really Kain-_ sensei _? He seems…so much different than before….')_

Suddenly a swarm of tentacles came at Kain from behind. Nodoka shouted his name in shock as they smashed in with great force….

Luppi laughed. "Take that, you stupid fool! One hit and you thought you'd gotten rid of me!? Arrancar of our caliber do not go down that easily!"

Grimmjow glared and snarled up at Luppi. "Luppi! That was my kill! How dare you interfere!?"

"I was here first…and besides, I owed him that after he dared to strike me," Luppi responded. "You had plenty of time. If you aren't quick enough, you'll lose your kill…."

"Exactly," Kain murmured from behind Luppi. Luppi, whirling in shock, began to rain more blows on the young man while retreating at the same time. Kain advanced into him, chanting. "Energy of the Polar Realms, gather together and bring eternal sleep to this one."

As he chanted, Kain laid hold on each tentacle that came his way. By the time he finished, he had all eight tentacles in his hand, and he released his spell. "Absolute Zero." Ice instantly traveled from his grip up the tentacles and onto Luppi's main body, encasing him in ice. Kain let go and allowed the arrancar to crash into the ground below…where, almost surprisingly, he didn't shatter into pieces.

Grimmjow actually grinned as Kain turned his attention back to him. "You really are pretty good. Eminus' data on you didn't mention any power like this. This is getting interesting." He drew his sword and came charging in at Kain again.

8-8-8

Yammy stared down at the devastation below. "I can't believe it! Those idiots! They're all letting themselves get killed by this trash!? Real arrancar don't have that great of numbers! If we keep taking losses like this…."

"Nagi and Eminus will get mad at us!" Hat-and-Clogs finished for him, loudly, from right behind him.

Yammy's eyes were wide in disbelief as he recognized the voice, but he swiftly turned to rage and whirled around, a mighty fist swinging to pulverize him. The man vanished and then reappeared on the other side of Yammy, forcing him to turn back.

"I know what you're thinking," Hat-and-Clogs said with a smile. "You felt your spirit pressure in those balas strike home—every single one. So how am I still alive?" He held up a small black marble-sized sphere. "The answer…is this." He then squeezed it, causing a small indentation to blossom out, and put his lips to it. A mighty breath caused it to inflate, and after it grew to a certain size it exploded, becoming an exact copy of the man. "Ta-da! A portable _gigai_!" he declared, holding it up and pinching its cheek.

"W-what's that!?" Yammy barked. "I've never heard of anything like that!"

"Of course not," the man replied. "I only recently invented it and haven't shown it to anyone before." He began to push on the sides of the fake's face, and it deflated slowly until it popped back into being a little black ball. "Of course, it's not a perfect tool—it works better than normal means of decoys and substitution, but I doubt there's anyone besides me who could get the timing down enough to actually be able to use it effectively in a fight. Well," he amended, turning his gaze over slightly to observe the young man battling down below them, "that kid might if I gave him enough time to practice. But it's okay…I've seen all I need to. That attack of yours won't hit me again."

"Bull$#!%!" barked Yammy, extending a hand to make a bala. It burst out, but the man was now standing on his back, his blade lying millimeters from the side of Yammy's face.

"I told you, that won't work on me anymore," the man murmured dangerously, and released a blast of energy from his sword.

Yammy streaked away, coughing, his face scarred and smoking. He turned and tried once more, but Hat-and-Clogs waved his sword in a circle and the energy dissipated before it finished gathering. "It's just plain useless. I've memorized the _reishi_ composition of that attack, as well as the position and action of your muscles when you prepare to fire it. Knowing those two things, I can now either cancel it or dodge every time you use it without any effort at all. Well…shall we finish this?"

Roaring, Yammy charged in…but then a hand suddenly caught him on the back. He turned and stared at the person who had dared interfere. "Ulquiorra!" he breathed.

The arrancar called Ulquiorra had pale skin almost the color of his robes. His hole was high, almost near his throat and nearly covered by his jacket. He had short dark hair and wore a half-helmet like mask on his head, and had teal lines, almost resembling a clown or mime's fake tears, running from his eyes to the bottom of his face. His expression was cold, machine-like, and utterly empty.

"That is enough," Ulquiorra murmured. "Our casualties we've sustained were too great. This operation is no longer profitable. It is time to retreat."

As he spoke, the sky above them seemed to open, and pillars of light shot down, casting a haze over Yammy, Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, Van, Legretta, Wonderweiss, Dist, the ice encasing Luppi, and the stone encasing Arietta. Then all nine of them began to rise into the sky.

Grimmjow scowled as he glanced up at this. "What, running away? It was just getting good." He turned to Kain and pointed at him. "You lucked out today, Kain Lockeheart…next time, I'll use my resurreción, and then we'll see how that power does."

The ice around Luppi shattered, but, while he was alive, he had been reduced to his original state. He glared down at Kain, too. "You failed to kill me, you brat. Just wait until next time. First thing, I'll break your skull and spill your pretty brains out!"

Ulquiorra was also staring at Kain, although it seemed to be in response to his popularity. "It seems you are more capable than reported," he murmured. "You have some unique power. The tests of it will continue…you seem to have many eager to see it."

Van, at least, wasn't paying (much) attention to Kain. "Hmm…for the three of you to fight us to a draw," he chuckled as Erza, Grey, and Natsu glared up at him. "Fairy Tail's reputation is well-earned. I look forward to the next time myself."

Kain stared after them until they had disappeared into the black holes in the sky and the holes, too, had vanished. Then he turned his eyes downward and met Nodoka's gaze. Letting his power go, he teleported down to her and considered her carefully. "Nodoka…are you all right?"

"Y-yes…thanks to everyone."

He sighed and shivered slightly. "I'm…I'm glad. If something had happened to you…." He shook his head and finally smiled. "But you're fine…I'm really, really glad. It's good to see you again, Nodoka."

Nodoka smiled bravely at him. "Y-yeah…you too, _Sensei_ …I'm so relieved…."

He turned as the four members of Fairy Tail suddenly flanked him. "And…you must be Nodoka's new friends…the Fairy Tail guild, right?" He bowed to them. "I am Kain Lockeheart, Nodoka's teacher. I'm very grateful to you for taking care of Nodoka all this time…."

"No, it was our pleasure," Erza replied, bowing. "Nodoka is a strong girl, and a worthy member of our guild. We're helping her, you could say, but she has also been of great assistance to us as well. I am Erza Scarlet."

"Grey Fullbuster," added the shirtless mage. His usual scowl changed into a small smile. "Well, it's interesting to finally meet Nodoka- _chan_ 's knight in shining armor…."

As Kain attempted to respond to that comment, Natsu suddenly ran up close to him. "Oh, man! Even while I was fighting, I saw it! That power was awesome! _I want to fight you!_ "

As Kain stared at this unique proposal, Lucy slammed him over the head from behind, dropping him onto the ground. "Please forgive this guy…he's an idiot. He's Natsu Dragneel. This is Happy," she added, pointing up to the blue cat, flying on his wings just above her.

"Aye!" Happy agreed.

"And I'm Lucy. We're so very honored and blessed to meet someone like you…the son of the famous Grand Archmage, the wizard who saved the world! Tell me, could I please have your autograph…?

Kain was even more taken aback by this. "Ah, well…I guess…."

"Hey! Kain!" Mai suddenly came swooping to next to him. "What was that all about? That was some pretty crazy power you were using!"

Kain shook his head. "No, that was just my _kanka_ variant, nothing more…."

"No…well, it was, but somehow, that's not it." She began to inspect him carefully. "I felt something was different about you before, but now I know for sure. What have you done to yourself?" She grabbed at his shoulder, moving aside the cloth to inspect the flesh underneath…despite the present bloodstains, utterly perfect and devoid of any marring. "I knew it…not only did you have crazy power that let you sleep-walk through that fight, you're healing like a vampire." She sighed. "I know you feel you have to be responsible for everyone, but still…just what _have_ you been doing?"

"Only what he had to, I'm sure," chuckled Hat-and-Clogs, approaching the group. "He does have to follow in his father's footsteps, after all."

Those present considered him carefully. "You…were helping us out earlier," Kain noted. "You seem to know us, but you have us at a disadvantage, mister…?"

"Urahara Kisuke. Well, usually I just say I'm a humble owner of a candy shop, but in this case, I should add a little more. I'm a friend…well, more like an acquaintance, but, I hope, a good acquaintance, of your father's. I was once a _hinigami_ , but that was a long time ago, ancient history."

As Kain's eyes widened in surprise, he continued, "I'm sure your next question is what someone like me is doing here. The answer involves this." He removed a small white pin, a little badge in the shape of a white wing. "Most of your scattered party is arriving on that airship that's just about here." He pointed to his right, where the _El-Hazard_ was coming into view. "But you're still missing a few. I've been tracking your progress since you first arrived in Arcanus Myrror and I've been finding all of your scattered party as best I can. And I've come here because I've finally found your most vulnerable, lost member…and she's in real trouble. I'll continue when we get aboard your ship there, and I'll tell you the whole story…and you can decide what you're going to do about it."

F I N

 _Author's Note: Character Introduction: Kisuke Urahara_

 _And here was a taste of Kain's new power…battling a pair of powerful Espada-class arrancar, he easily resisted them, nay, overpowered them, without really showing his true potential. True, Grimmjow was a tough enough foe that he was losing in his 'natural' state, but all he had to do was turn on his True_ Kanka _to rise head and shoulders above him. Grimmjow threatened him boldly, but truth be told, even released he'll be just another stepping stone testing Kain's true power as he prepares to fight his real enemies._

 _Besides Van and his crew that we've seen before, this chapter introduced the arrancar, another group of enemies I've planned on using but wasn't sure exactly how many/which ones…but since I have so many combatants, I decided to start tossing them in. The arrancar, of course, were the big bads through most of Bleach, the foes Ichigo and his friends had to fight and overcome in order to save Karakura-_ chô _, the terrible creations of Aizen, as described here, half-hollow and half-Soul Reaper using his completed Hôgyôku. Of course, in this history, that isn't true, because Kalan defeated Aizen back during the initial uprising twenty-fourish years ago before he got his hands on Kisuke's Hôgyôku, which he then destroyed._

 _However, Nagi, the 'diplomat' between Aizen and the Obsidian Star, escaped with Aizen's research notes and his version of the sphere, along with his two lieutenants, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tôsen. Those latter two perished in the previous war in ways that will be revealed in flashbacks, but Nagi survived the destruction of the group at the end of the war and, during the last twenty years when those remnants were secretly rebuilding, he went into Hueco Mundo, the hollows' plane, and began to rule it as Aizen did in the Bleach series, using the Obsidian Star's power to complete the research Aizen started. Now his army of arrancar is finally ready, and he set the first pieces of them on the party here. They will, of course, be primary adversaries for the Soul Reapers when Soul Society's army finally shows up, later on in the big battles._

 _For starters, to give out some foes that could battle our hero and his friends, I introduced Grimmjow and his fracción, and added three arrancar from an anime filler mini-arc. They are quite useful for powerful enemies that can push our heroes to their limits, and quickly be defeated by them. There are no specific numerical ranks and special designations like Espada amongst Nagi's arrancar, but those that are most powerful do serve as lieutenants and such._

 _Far more important than the minor arrancar enemies is our new hero support Kisuke Urahara. His role here, just as in his origin, Bleach, is that of the analytical, strategizing companion. He aided Kalan twenty years ago just as he aided Ichigo, and now he has come out of the shadows of his peaceful candy shop to help Kain put a stop to the Obsidian Star. Kisuke was once a captain of the Gotei 13 and the creator of its R &D, but he was framed by Aizen in the midst of the latter's evil experiments and banished from the Soul Society. Kalan's work, of course, cleared his name and that of the Vizoreds that Aizen corrupted, but since Kurotsuchi is now the head of the R&D, he's decided he prefers living on Earth and Arcanus Myrror. Thanks to that, he's on hand to help battle against the foes that are now confronting our heroes. A powerful fighter and master spellcaster, as well as a brilliant tactical mind, he only gets his own hands dirty if he has to but he provides excellent support when he does. Most likely he'll be one of the champions that helps hone out Kain's final training regimens before the end. Most importantly, however, right now he's going to help retrieve one of the most significant lost lambs…._

 _So, let's move onward to the next battle!_


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter Five: The Captive Bird

Akari, Kiami, Hikaru and Delryn had been teleported to the battle ahead of time by the collection of skilled mages on board, and now everyone was gathered back on the great bridge of the _El-Hazard_ …including Kagome, Hinagiku, and the rest of the party that had been in town (Natsu, of course, was quickly rendered powerless by the fact that they were on a moving vehicle, but Kain gave him a magical potion from his collection of treasures that eased his symptoms temporarily, much to his pleasure). There was some relief and joy of reunions, but it was generally subdued because of the weightiness of this new situation. Kagome and Tear were using their healing to tend to the wounds sustained by the fighters, but all were insisting on being present as Kisuke Urahara made his explanations to the party. Aiden was also present, watching from the back door.

Although Kamo led off. "Urahara Kisuke…long time no see, you old rogue!" the ermine chuckled. "Good that you've finally shown up. So, where's your little furry friend…?"

"Ahead…we'll get to that later," Kisuke chuckled, covering his mouth with a fan. Then his expression grew serious and he snapped the fan shut. "As I've already explained to Kain here, I am an old comrade-in-arms of Kalan Lockeheart, and, since your arrival here in Arcanus Myrror, I've been keeping track of certain things.

"First off, I already know for a fact that all but three members of your band are at least partially accounted for…it seems Miss Lina Inverse isn't present, but she has sent word of her situation and is simply delayed somehow. But there are three you haven't heard from: Hinamori Momo, Ayase Yue, and Sendô Erika. I am here to pass on information about all three of them.

"Firstly, regarding Hinamori Momo: some of your number have suspected that she was sent, during your mass exodus, into the Soul Society, and I can confirm the matter. I won't go into details about that here, but when Miss Tear Grants used the Gateport's energy to teleport the members of the White Wings to safety, the victims were scattered to the astral winds of Arcanus Myrror, and were drawn to those realms that had connections to them—as Higurashi Kagome, a girl of mage lineage, was taken to the land of Takamori, where her ancestors were priestesses connected to the land. Similarly, Hinamori Momo, as a _hinigami_ , was magically transported back to the Soul Society."

"Wait a moment," Nanami suddenly insisted. "If that's true, then…why didn't Mai, who is a princess of this land, Kanev and Orimus, get transported here?"

"Orimus is in a different situation because of the war," Rin explained in the place of Urahara. "It is still out of sync with the rest of the magical world…a spell of that nature wouldn't have been able to bring her here. It's complicated, but that's the long and short of it."

"Thank you, Tôsaka- _san_ ," Kisuke said with a smile. He then continued, "In any case, I still have ways of getting information from Soul Society, even in this situation, and I have confirmed that Hinamori- _chan_ is doing well and should be returning to you any day now. She is in no danger right now.

"Then there is Ayase Yue." He held up a White Wing pin. "This is her badge. Your Ayanami Rei- _san_ can confirm this, yes?"

Rei stepped forward and took the badge from his hand. She held it up and let her magic work; the badge floated into the air above her hand and data began displaying in the air around it. "Yes…this is the badge belonging to Ayase Yue." She turned her cold stare on Kisuke. "Why is it in your possession?"

"Ayase Yue had a rough accident when she arrived," Kisuke explained. "She lost it then. Still, she arrived in just about the best position of any of your members, and she is being well taken care of by another one of Kalan Lockeheart's supporters. Although she cannot contact you right now, she is in good condition and will also be here soon. As I said, she had an accident that has complicated matters, but for now, she is safe, I assure you…she is not the one we need to worry about right now."

"I can vouch for that," Kamo said. "I'm connected to all the cards you contracted folks carry. Yuecchi's was silent for a long time, but recently—the past few weeks—I felt it activate, which can only mean that she was calling on her artifact, and on the contract. There have been a few instinctual draws on the power up to that point, but this full-blown activation was a sure sign that she's doing just fine. I couldn't tell anything more, though, because it's from somewhere on the other end of the world." He thought for a moment. "Also, I guess I should mention that some very interesting person used some very interesting magic on it, trying to find out more about it, not long after that activation. Do you have anything you'd like to say about that, Kisuke? I'm a little curious about her situation…."

"I'll tell you later, but right now, that's not the priority…."

"As long as Yue is safe, that's enough for now," Kain murmured, nodding. "But more importantly…the third out-of-contact person is Erika- _san_. I assume you took custody of Yue's badge because of that?"

Kisuke chuckled. "You certainly are sharp, Kain. Yes, I took 'custody' of Ayase- _san_ 's badge so that I could reverse-engineer it…they were marvelously made, but by someone who has no experience with Arcanus Myrror and the magic and potential present in this magic world. I've been a scientist for over a hundred years, and I've been in Arcanus Myrror for nearly that long, so no one knows this world or how to take advantage of its unique atmosphere better than I do. It may sound like I'm boasting, but I'm just excusing my theft.

"The point of it is this: I _have_ located Sendô Erika- _san_. She's being held by the Obsidian Star at one of their bases, located here, in the ruins of Orimus."

Silence greeted this declaration. Just as it was about to burst into babble, Kain's power suddenly flared up, stunning everyone present. "Erika- _san_ …she's been in the hands of the Obsidian Star for _three months_ …?" He calmed down, letting his power go, and shook his head. "She's…the last person who this should have happened to. She's strong but…as a vampire…how is she doing about blood? Knowing them, they…they're either starving her horribly or…feeding her terribly…."

"I-I don't know," Hinagiku muttered. "We met some of them during our travels, and…most of them don't seem that bad…." Kain looked at her oddly, but she had already turned her head, trailing off and muttering. "No, that really depends," she conceded more loudly. "If it's that Nagi person who has his hands on her…that would be very, very bad…."

Kain turned a hard stare to Kisuke. "Can you take us to her, Urahara- _san_?"

Kisuke smiled slightly, unfolding his fan again. "She's in a major enemy lair—I can't say it's their main base, but it could be swarming with the Obsidian Star's strongest and most capable. I can take you there…but the real question is: are you going to be able to handle it?"

"We'll have to," Kain said curtly. He turned to address the assembled…honestly, army. "First, to the members of the White Wings: one of our number is, as we've heard, held by the enemy. There is no question about this. We can't begin to think of returning to Earth without her. I've been around with you long enough to know I don't need to say anything more: we _have_ to rescue her." He looked around at all the assembled faces. "As for the rest of you…I don't have any right to demand or ask anything of you…I barely know most of you, I've only met you just now, and you've already done so much for my students, my companions, my friends. I don't have the right to even beg your help, so…."

"Really, that's enough," Jade interrupted, stepping forward with a sigh. "You're an interesting young man, Kain Lockeheart. I've never seen someone so strong-willed and impressive who was so reserved and careful with others. Colonel Jade Curtis of the Grandall military. If you're going to be talking about what's right and proper, I should be arresting you right now as the terrorist Randis Helam, an internationally-wanted criminal." He smiled slightly. "Obviously, that's out of the question for many reasons.

"The point is that all those assembled here apart from your White Wings have their reasons for being amongst the group. But we've already come all this way and gone this far for these girls…far be it from me to speak the minds of others as if I knew them, but it still seems obvious to me that we wouldn't be here right now if we weren't willing to help with at least this much."

"A damsel in distress is captive-bound!" Minsc crowed. "Her rescue is the heroic deed of legends all worthy heroes strive for! Isn't that right, Boo?"

"Fairy Tail won't back down from a fight," Natsu insisted. "If these guys have captured some of Nodoka's friends, we'll do all we can to go to the rescue!"

"I have a score to settle with the Obsidian Star myself," Inuyasha growled. "This is the perfect opportunity…."

Delryn's eye was on the man by the door, but he turned his attention to Kain and added, "I'm just an innocent bystander swept up in all this myself, but as Minsc says, rescuing damsels in distress is the kind of mandatory hero's work we live for, right? I'll help out this once."

"I hope you aren't believing that we'd actually back down from this," Rin chuckled. "We came here to help save and rescue your little class, after all. Let's get this done!"

Kain glanced around and nodded. "Thank you all. I won't say anything more about it, then. We head for the Obsidian Star's lair immediately." He turned to Kisuke. "If you would, please tell us everything you can about what we're facing, Urahara- _san_."

8-8-8

The _El-Hazard_ approached the large asteroid floating in the magical air around Orimus. "That's it…their base of operations?" Kain demanded. "That's where they're holding Erika- _san_?"

"One of several bases," Kisuke replied. "For instance, that ray of light that retrieved their number in the battle before is called 'negación', an ability of the Menos Grande of Hueco Mundo. Nagi Homura—or, perhaps, Nagi Di Artai—is now the effective Lord of Hueco Mundo, the world of the hollows. But _this_ base is, at least, where they are holding Sendô Erika."

Kain nodded and turned to his assembled army. "Are we all clear on the plan?"

Kenjirô smirked. "It's a pretty simple plan, really. Two forces: the main force attacks them at the entrance, distracting them and inflicting as much damage as possible, while the smaller force burrows into the bottom of their base, where Erika- _san_ is being held, retrieves her, and escapes."

"Once Erika- _san_ is secure, everyone pulls back and escapes," Kain insisted. "We don't leave anyone behind, but we don't linger if the fighting drags on that long. This is the Obsidian Star we're talking about, after all. We have a force, but that last battle we just had is only a taste of their power. We have no idea just what they'll be capable of."

Akari sighed. "I wish that I could go, too," she muttered despondently.

"It can't be helped," Hikaru said sympathetically. "You sustained more damage than anyone in that last battle, and, as fierce as it was, not everyone could be healed to full health. Besides, your absence is one of the selling points to the diversion—if we're keeping you in reserve because you're injured, it's just as likely that we're also holding back Mai- _san_ , Kain- _sensei_ , and the others."

"It certainly would seem prudent of us to keep Mai off of the front lines," Tear murmured. "But Kain- _sensei_ is another matter…won't they be suspicious that he isn't part of the main force?"

"Perhaps," Kisuke agreed. "However, they have little reason to suspect that we'd try to make an entrance the way we're going. Most likely, they'll conclude that this is a distraction while we go after one of their other bases. It's a bit of a gamble, but it's the highest reward for the lowest risk. If it works out like we planned, both groups will encounter less resistance. If it doesn't…then we'll need every member of the infiltration team at their best."

The infiltration team would be made up of Kain, Mai, Hinagiku, Kajirô, Nodoka, and Kisuke himself along with 'a friend already there waiting'. The group was intended to be able to deal with any threat they encountered, but be small enough to get in and out quickly and easily. Between Mai and Hinagiku's anti-magic abilities, Kajirô's abilities to deal with particular threats, and Nodoka's ability to read the minds of any they did encounter, plus the general effectiveness of Kain and Kisuke, it was certainly a potent force. The rest of the group—excepting Akari, Kiami, Lucy, Shippô (with Myôga), Ami, Chisame, Kazumi and Nanami (with Kamo), who were remaining on the ship—would be the main force attacking the base head-on.

"We're almost within range," Nanami announced. "Everyone better take their positions!" She pointed out the window. "I'll be dropping the main group off at that rock so they can begin their assault."

"I'll lead off," Aiden announced, moving to stand over the elevator entrance. "Normally I wouldn't get involved, but this is a pretty major operation, and if I'm part of the initial assault, that will help distract them all the more."

"You're just waiting for a chance to show off," Delryn grumbled.

Aiden glanced back at the younger man, smiled slightly, and replied, "Well, if you want to show off for the ladies here, don't let me stop you."

"Aaaaannnddd…what's this about?" Kiami asked with extreme interest, glancing back and forth between the two men.

"Later," they said in unison and almost identical tone. Then the platform opened and Aiden descended down out of the ship.

8-8-8

Eminus sat watching the monitor. Kain and Grimmjow dueled before his eyes. "Kain- _kun_ …he does seem quite different than before…that ability of his…."

Then an alert began to sound. As Eminus glanced quizzically at the lights, Fyuria came hurrying in. "Eminus- _sama_! We are under attack! And it's…!"

Eminus gestured at another monitor, causing it to display the frontal camera. There, perched on a smaller rock overhead, was the trademark fedora and duster of their attacker. "Aiden Rylack," Eminus murmured. "So he decided to get involved himself…?"

The bubble of his artifact rose up around him, and he began to rain fire on the building. He began with his higher-caliber explosive ordnance, raining missiles and RPGs onto the base to blast a hole around its entrance. Naturally, in sci-fi fashion, the base rocked and swayed slightly from the explosions.

"That insolent…! We'll go deal with him immediately, Eminus- _sama_ …." Fyuria turned and began to run for the door.

"No." Eminus command brought her up short, and she turned to him in surprise. "There's no need to do so. This is just the preliminary…and it's a pointless battle."

"W-what are you talking about!? They're bringing the battle to us…!"

"This attack is just a feint," Eminus replied. "They're after our prisoner. Urahara Kisuke appeared in the last battle just an hour ago…he must have somehow learned her location. Only the safety of his companions would prompt Kain Lockeheart and his allies into such an aggressive attack so soon.

"However, if Urahara Kisuke was able to locate her, he likely has made more than enough plans to enable her rescue. The best course of action is simply to let them take her. Alvaris." The black ermine appeared on Eminus' shoulder. "Pass word along to the others. We'll leave the Knights and our normal defenses to play with the intruders. Everyone else is to take all essential supplies and data and depart, and rendezvous at the Obsidian Palace." Nodding, Alvaris vanished again.

He turned and stalked out. Fyuria hurried after him. "What are you planning to do?" she demanded.

"Two individuals require my attention before I depart," he replied. "Go join your brother, Fyuria. I'll be along shortly."

He passed first into the large laboratory, and, ignoring most of the equipment strewn about, made his way to the large tank of amber liquid and the silhouette within. Even as he stared at it, the glass began to crack. The crack grew until the glass shattered, exploding outward and letting all the liquid drain away. Stepping out of the tube was a naked man, tall and well-built, with long black hair and eyes of different colors, one blue and one green. Eminus gazed down at him. "So you're recovered, with impeccable timing," he murmured. "Are you Horius, Kalovus, or Koltas?"

The man stood fully erect and, at a gesture, clothed himself in a suit of white with a black cloak. "I am all, and I am none of those. The name Corai was the one they shared, although only Koltas ever claimed it. Corai will do for my name. I awoke because the excitement seems to suggest that it is time to leave."

Eminus nodded. "We have a powerful enough force here that it is not prudent to stay, and there is no value in fighting them here. I'm grateful you awoke when you did…it would be far too much trouble to carry your container out."

The man closed his eyes and raised his head, concentrating on something. Eminus had begun to turn and walk away, but stopped and looked back when he felt the other man's hesitation. "What is the matter?"

"This union provides some benefits." He opened his eyes and glanced back at the younger man. "For the sake of our allies—and aid to our own plan—there is something that I can retrieve before I leave here." He faded away.

Eminus nodded and set his own face back to his next destination. "If it pleases you. I do have one last gift that I will need to leave for our visitors…."

8-8-8

In response to Aiden's assault, a dozen figures of varying semi-humanoid shapes and sizes emerged from the hole. "Oi, oi…they really have started coming back in force," Aiden muttered with a wry smile. "A dozen Knights to start with, right from the get-go…well, let's see just how good these kiddies are….

"I'm leaving the rest to you!" Aiden called out, pulling back his artifact as the rest of the assault team settled onto the nearest rock. "I've knocked pretty hard, but…."

Suddenly a swarm of whip-like shadow blades scissored through Aiden's perch, smashing it to pieces and creating a huge cloud of obscuring dust. Aiden reappeared some distance in the air, standing on it rather like the _hinigami_ instead of flying. He narrowed his eyes. "That's…."

"Aiden Rylack!" came the voice of Dynamis as the black-robed figure appeared in the air opposite him. "So, you've shown yourself to me…how foolish. It's been twenty years…after all this time, it's the perfect opportunity for revenge!" Another cascade of flowing black weapons came Aiden's way.

"Twenty years, indeed, Dynamis," Aiden agreed as he dodged the attacks. "I'm surprised you can fight after the condition I left you in…hell, I'm surprised that you're even alive. How did you manage to recover?"

"Ah…a mystery, even for you? Well, why don't you die wondering?"

Blackness flowed from under him, underneath Aiden, and then fountain up behind up, blossoming out and opening to engulf him like a maw. Aiden turned casually to stare up at the incoming attack, but before he could do anything, another figure suddenly came streaking in from the side and punched Dynamis hard in his masked face with a flame-wrapped punch.

Dynamis staggered, his shadows disappearing and retracting as he recovered from his stun. Aiden smirked at Natsu, flying through the air in the grip of Happy, chuckling as his friend came around for another pass. "So, you're the big guy here, huh? I'll take you on! Take this!"

Aiden tipped his hat to the young man. "Thanks…Natsu, was it? I'll leave him to you, then." And he vanished.

"Aiden Rylack!" cried Dynamis, but Natsu came sweeping in behind again.

"Over here! Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!"

The flame that sprouted from his elbows came whipping down to lash the shadow-clad spellcaster. He came retreating out of the explosion and turned to glare at the Dragonslayer as his friend flew him around.

The rest of the group settled upon the designated rock and began to observe both the battle and the incoming enemies. A few unleashed attack spells or blasts of energy; Tokine, Yoshimori, and Tear created barriers, blocking the attacks, and then Jade, Rin, Aerie, and Grey followed by releasing their own spells at the enemy. Then the swordsmen—Kenjirô, Hikaru, Delryn, Inuyasha, Minsc, and Erza—jumped to land on the main 'asteroid' of the base and engage in close-range combat. The rest of them soon followed, and they began to press towards the entrance to the base.

The infiltration team—excepting Hinagiku, who was pointedly staying away from all windows—sat watching the battle below. "Things seem to be going well," Mai noted softly.

"Maybe too well," Kain replied softly. "I hope this doesn't mean that things are going to be worse for us inside. But in any case it's better than the alternative…."

"It's time," Kisuke murmured softly. "We're ready. Everyone gather around."

As they did so, Kisuke suddenly released a ribbon from his robe. It began to encircle the entire group, spiraling up, and they began to plane-shift….

8-8-8

They reappeared on an outcropping far below, near the bottom of the floating island. The sounds of the battle above wafted down towards them.

Standing before them was a figure in a very thick black coat with a heavy, raised hood, completely obscuring all features. "Yoruichi…how's it going?" Kisuke greeted the figure cheerfully. "Are we all ready?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" a strong feminine voice came from the depths of the coat in response. A hand pulled the coat from her, and Yoruichi shook herself. She was dark-skinned and beautiful, perfectly shaped for both athleticism and beauty, with sharp cat-like yellow eyes and medium-length purple hair bound in a ponytail. Underneath the coat she was dressed in a black bodysuit with an orange vest on top. She fixed a half-smile half-glare at Kisuke. "You've got some nerve, you know, leaving me here in that stuffy coat for all this time. You should have hurried in here faster…."

"Sorry, sorry," Kisuke apologized cheerfully and somewhat pathetically. "There was a lot to take care of…and if you hadn't had my coat, you might have been discovered…."

"For safety, you're right, but you always could have come up with other options." She turned to the rock barrier. "Let's get in swiftly and get this over with. We better get inside." She used a finger to draw a sign in the wall, and a doorway-sized rectangle of rock suddenly pushed out of the rock and slid to the side, creating an entrance into the compound.

Kain glanced at the wall quizzically. "I assume the Obsidian Star knows nothing about this door…."

"Don't underestimate the kind of fun we can get ourselves into," Yoruichi smirked, focusing on the man. "So, you must be Kain Lockeheart, eh? Look at you…certainly brings back memories. Now, come one…we've got a prisoner to rescue…."

The group hurried into the base. Behind them, the door slid back into place, but leaving just a crack visible for those who knew what they were looking for.

8-8-8

The door opened and Eminus entered. The blond figure at the other end of the room raised her head to stare at him and snarled like an animal. "Easy, there," Eminus murmured, approaching her casually. "I have excellent news for you, Sendô Erika. Your friends have actually come here to save you. They have gathered quite a force of allies to help them…they are more capable than I first suspected. So I've decided to give you to them."

He put a hand to the side of her face and brushed at it. "I suppose I could put some sort of spell or trick into you, play some games with Kain- _kun_ and the rest…but then again, Urahara Kisuke would quite likely find and nullify it before it became a threat. So I'll just give you to them as you are…a mindless beast, overcome by your vampire instincts. That, alone, should be an interesting enough greeting."

He stood, reached out, and touched the manacles that held Erika there. They snapped open, dropping her to the ground, and Erika assumed a bestial crouch, still growling at Eminus, but not leaping to attack. "That's right," Eminus murmured. "It's better if you save your rage for something you can hurt. I'll be going now…but you won't be alone for long."

He turned and departed, closing the door again behind him. "Now, that should be all…I suppose…."

"Eminus!"

Eminus turned and stared at the approaching group. "Ah…Kain- _kun_ …and so many of you…I did not expect you here so quickly. You've certainly outmaneuvered me. I guess my retreat should be swift…."

"Running away!?" Kain demanded angrily, powering and throwing a doom bolt with astonishing speed.

Eminus retreated fifty feet down the hall with a step. "Dear me," he said. "You're certainly different than before, Kain- _kun_ , but there's no benefit to fighting with you now…shouldn't we save the game for a better time…?"

In response, Kain bounced from wall to wall, advancing towards him swiftly. As he finally hurled himself at Eminus, the brown-haired boy knocked him aside, and then turned to duel him as Kain bounced back instantly, engaging him with fists and feet.

"Oh…you certainly have improved…even after fighting Grimmjow, you're capable of going toe-to-toe with me so easily. You are worthy of my interest….

"But not right now," he concluded, suddenly summoning a mound of stone to block and repulse Kain. Kain fell back only briefly before coming back forward, smashing through the rock and coming straight at Eminus. Eminus, however, slipped into the ground, disappearing as it swallowed him up as if it were water. His voice was left wafting through the air, "I'll let you have your girl back, Kain- _kun_ …accept my regards."

Kain stared after the man for a second before turning back to his allies. The door was open, and they were not in the hallway…and as he took this in, a scream sounded from inside the room.

8-8-8

The invading army moved into the secret compound, pushing back the defenders. Jade walked in relaxed, letting the energetic youths take the lead. "How strange," he murmured, pushing at his glasses. "It almost seems as if they're just giving the place away to us. I certainly expected stronger resistance…."

And then everyone around him faded away. He raised his head and frowned. He was still in the asteroid/base, but he seemed to be the only one. A careful perusal of the few corridors and rooms they passed revealed that he was quite alone. "Quite a trick here," he murmured. "Now…who is playing games with me?"

"Not games, but serious business, I assure you," Corai responded, emerging into view. "If you're cooperative, this won't take long. I would suggest it…here, we have all the time in the world."

"And what is it you are after, trapping here in this mental labyrinth?" Jade demanded even as the scene began to fade away, leaving the two standing in a null-space. "You should know I don't give in to most forms of persuasion."

"I'm well aware…but we're nearing the final stages of our plan." Corai gestured, and the scene changed…to a land of snow. A tiny brown-haired boy kneeled next to a tiny blond-haired girl. There was a broken doll lying on an inscribed magical circle, and the boy was finishing drawing another circle in the snow next to it. "The Obsidian Star on its own requires nothing of you, but our faithful allies would appreciate a generous donation of knowledge from you. Well, here is a start…the first time you practiced the art of Replication. Using nothing more than your own magical power, on a whim, you created a perfect magical clone of a simple object…."

Indeed, in the scene the red-eyed boy finished his work and gestured, and after a flashy magical power erupted, an unbroken doll appeared on the circle opposite. Jade was paying no attention to the scene, however, but stared calmly at Corai. "So…you're trying to steal my secrets for the sake of Van Grants? It's pointless, you know…you say 'perfect', but Replicated objects, even with my best work, do not last. They are an improvement on conjurations, solidified illusions, but their duration is still unreliable. Van Grants' dream is nothing but that…a fantasy that cannot be made real."

"So you say…but combined with the Obsidian Star's power, combined with the Cosmo Entelecheia, a perfect replication can be created…the ideal world for the humans who will live on." The scenes around them began to shift, taking in new scenes pulled from Jade's mind. "But you can doubt all you like…it will matter little in the long run. I have no intention of doing anything more to you right now…but before we leave this place, I will have your secret."

8-8-8

As Kain charged off after Eminus, Nodoka went to the door and began to work on the lock. Kisuke and Yoruichi had disappeared down a side passage just a bit earlier…Mai wondered what their game was until she heard the sounds of combat behind them and realized she should be grateful they were covering their rear.

Nodoka finished with the lock and carefully opened it, Mai and Hinagiku hurried in first, at the ready. They stared at Erika curled up against the far wall. Calling her name, both began to hurry towards her.

"W-wait…" Kajirô cautioned them, hurrying in after them.

It was in vain…the next instant, Erika suddenly lowered her arms and glanced up at them. She was on Mai in the blink of an eye, knocking her down and eliciting a mild scream.

"E-Erika!?" Hinagiku cried in shock. Mai struggled against Erika, throwing her off, but the blond girl bounced up quickly and came at her again. Hinagiku moved to intercept, but Erika knocked aside her arm and grabbed her by the throat, then slammed her up against the wall.

Crying, Kajirô came in behind her, but Erika lashed out with a brilliant side kick and sent him sprawling. At that moment, Kain finally entered and stood next to the panicking, stuttering Nodoka, who had her book in front of her and was staring at it.

"What's this!?" Kain demanded in shock. "What's going on…Erika- _san_ is…!?"

Mai jumped back on Erika, forcing her away from Hinagiku. "Kajirô- _kun_!" she demanded as the man began to pick himself up. "Shouldn't your sword be doing something about this!?"

"This isn't any kind of magical control!" Kajirô replied in despair. "It…must be her own instincts, unleashed. If that guy did anything to her, it was only to stir up the darkest part of her…!"

"H-her thoughts are so dark…I can hardly read them!" Nodoka squeaked. "S-she's consumed with hunger…."

"P-please, Erika, wake up," Hinagiku pleaded as Mai and Erika wrestled. Kajirô helped her to her feet as she continued, "You're still in there, aren't you!? We're your friends!"

"Mai, let her go," Kain instructed the girl quietly, walking away from Nodoka and into the center of the room. "I'll have to take care of this."

Mai glanced at him in surprise and a small amount of fear, but she pushed back against Erika and jumped back, disengaging. As Erika began to pursue, a weak bolt of magical energy suddenly impacted against the side of her face. She turned to glare at Kain, snarling.

"I'm right here," Kain murmured, staring at her levelly. "Come and get me."

Erika charged in, slamming her hands into his shoulders and driving him to the ground. She straddled him, staring down, snarling, her lip quivering, and held him by his upper arms. Kain lay there placidly, not responding, even as his three students called his name. "Don't move!" he snapped out, still staring up into Erika's bestial face.

He waited for Erika to make some kind of attack, but to his surprise, she just continued straddling him, her red eyes wide and shining with that animalistic instinct. Then she brought her lip under one of her sharp fangs and pierced it. Her face was perfectly situated over Kain's, and the droplets of blood began to stretch from the bottom of her lip.

 _('Ah…I see now,')_ Kain thought. _('Her instincts are in full force, but tempered by her deep feelings. Her heart has held her back, and only our own reluctance to fight her seriously has made her dangerous at all. Now…she's instinctively trying to make me her Servant because….')_

But he then formed a fist of powered magical energy and dropped it on her from above, cracking against the back of her head and leaving her senseless on top of him. He repositioned her so he could rise and pick her prone form up in his arms. "We've got Erika- _san_. Let's get out of here…before anything else happens to us."

8-8-8

Happy dodged another swarm of Dynamis' shadow tentacles. He panted as he swooped away. "N-Natsu," he gasped, "I'm getting tired…I can't fly much longer…."

"Ah…is it that time already!? Darn…better land on that base and hope it doesn't move too much…."

"Faltering, feline?" Dynamis growled. "It's finally time for you to die!" Another swarm lashed out, and Happy seemed too tired to dodge….

"Uh oh…Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu used his breath to accelerate the both of them, crashing them into the rock and out of reach of the attack. Happy lay on the ground, his eyes rolling around, but Natsu picked himself up. "Okay! We're ready to go!"

As Dynamis growled, a telepathic message reached him. _('Dynamis…we're withdrawing. Retreat.')_

"Ah?" He sighed. "Very well…my main prey has already vanished, after all…." And he disappeared.

"Hey! Don't run away!" Natsu sighed. "Oh, man…that was just getting good…."

8-8-8

Overcast looked around. "It seems like everything's over…but where'd the Colonel get to?"

As the rampaging conquering heroes continued exploring the empty rooms, he cast a spell and began to track his target. A few back hallways everyone had ignored led him to the man, sitting nearly comatose on the ground, with a dark shadow next to him that vanished as he approached.

Overcast dropped down to his commander and tried to raise him up. Jade's eyes swiftly came into focus as his head lolled the man's direction and he looked up at him. "Lieutenant," he muttered. "Your timing could have perhaps been better…but after having my mind raked through some hot coals, I'll take what support I can get. Let me rest a moment, and then we'll join the others…we should probably be leaving soon, even if it seems the danger is over."

"What happened to you…?"

"Nothing that needs to be related to anyone now…it's nothing to be concerned about, at least at the moment…."

Suddenly the ground under their feet rocked. "Ah, and that would be the farewell gift they left us," Jade chuckled. "Predictable. You never abandon a base and let it fall into enemy hands if you can help it…." Standing up and striding out cool as a cucumber, Jade found and began to herd the group away….

The entire party moved at speed out of the base and back onto the _El-Hazard_ , narrowly escaping the destruction of the base….

8-8-8

Erika winced as the strange sensations starting crawling around and through her…coming back to consciousness was tough after all she'd been through. Her eyes finally fluttered open and she tried to make sense of her surroundings. She was dressed in a white gown, a hospital gown, it would seem, in a hospital room of some sort. She was actually hooked up to an IV machine…although the liquid being fed into her body was a dark red in color. Not the way she would have thought to get her blood dosage, but….

The only door to the room opened, and Kisuke Urahara stepped inside. For Erika, of course, this was the first time seeing the shady-looking merchant and she tensed slightly. "Good afternoon, Sendô- _san_ ," he greeted her. "You're looking well…much better than before, at least. It's not so easy to get blood like this, or to rig it up in a way to feed a vampire intravenously, but I'm glad it's working. And I'm not the only one…."

Mai and Hinagiku hurried in first, Kain following them quickly, and Rei walked in softly after them all. Erika stared at them. A moment later, babbling slightly, the two lead girls threw themselves onto Erika. "Mai…Hina…I'm…back? Was I…dreaming all that…?"

"Unfortunately not," Kain muttered softly. "Are you all right now, Erika- _san_?"

"Kain- _sensei_ …yes…I think so…I feel weak, but…what's going on…? My head…feels so thick…I'm not sure what's real and what's not anymore…."

"It's all right," Mai murmured. "You're here with us now, Erika. You're safe, among friends again…."

"As safe as any of us are," Kain murmured. He glanced around at the others. "Could you…leave us alone for a moment, everyone? I'd like to speak with Erika- _san_ alone…."

Hinagiku and Mai threw him quizzical glances, but Mai nodded and rose. "All right. C'mon, everyone…."

The last to enter, Rei was also the last to leave, giving Erika a small, unsure smile before she slipped out and closed the door. After staring at it for a moment, Kain turned back to Erika and sat on a chair by her bed. "It's good that you're all right now, Erika- _san_. I…can't imagine how horrible that must have been for you…held captive by the Obsidian Star all this time…."

"Captive…so, I really was…I thought that was a dream…hoped it was…everything in my head is just so muddled…."

"From what Urahara- _san_ —that man who was just here, an old friend of my father's and the one who helped us rescue you—from what he said, they were feeding you with odd blood…probably the blood of Eminus himself. Not enough of it, either, but enough to keep you conscious, in an animalistic rage."

"Yes…I remember now…the taste of it…it's still overpowering." She shuddered. "This nightmare…."

Kain laid a hand on top of hers. "I'm so very sorry," he murmured. "I…should have let you leave our company when you first wanted it. I made you go through all this…."

Erika sucked in a deep sigh and then glared at Kain. "Don't even start that," she growled. "It was my decision…you and Chisame- _chan_ talked me into it the most, but I am responsible for my own choices…you couldn't have known anything about what was going to happen. But, despite everything, you all managed to get me away from them and save me, right? So, all's well that ends well…."

Kain was silent a moment. "Thank you for that. I'm…relieved you don't blame me…but it might not be 'all well'. We'll probably be here at least another two weeks…and blood is going to be hard to come by for you, at least through your normal channels. And we have no idea when the Obsidian Star is going to try to attack us again. You need to be in better condition before all of that. Urahara- _san_ is doing what he can, but…after that contamination, you're not going to recover quickly by any normal means…."

It was Erika's turn for silence and hesitation. "You're suggesting, of course…."

"I don't want to pressure you…not about something like this. But it's time for us all to grow up and forget about little emotional hurdles. Our main objective is still simply to get home, but to accomplish that we'll probably have to get through the Obsidian Star. And to make it that far, it's probably a necessity that all the members of our class have a contract, so we're bound together and have additional protection. I know why you, especially, have refused, but now there's little real choice. You need it more than anyone."

Erika shuddered. "Do you know what you're asking of me?"

"I do. I've considered it a long time. Mai and I talked it over, too. You reject your vampire heritage so strongly you're afraid of even tasting the blood of someone close to you. But right now it's the best thing for you…and in my case…." Kain chuckled slightly. "You're still in a bit of a stupor, so all your senses aren't working, but if what Aiden and Urahara- _san_ and I discussed is true, you'll have trouble resisting my blood now anyway, regardless of whether we're contracted or not. So it's time to stop resisting—I'll give you as much blood as you need from now on. Or, if you prefer, you can try contracting with Mai or Hinagiku, either of whom has enough mage power in their blood to sustain you easily. But in this situation, you can't be spoiled and try to rely on simple blood packets anymore. You…probably won't survive this if you do. You were trying to feed me your blood, make me your Servant, in the course of that mad frenzy back there. For our sakes, if nothing else, so that you don't have to make _that_ kind of contract, you should do it Kamo's way, since it's much less painful for all involved.

"And," Kain finished with a laugh, "if being contracted with me is so distasteful to you, we can always nullify it when we get back to Mahora and you can go safely back to your normal life with everyone else…."

"T-that's not it, Kain- _sensei_ ," Erika said, reddening. "Don't tease me…you know it's not." She sighed and then smiled. "Harsh words…but I guess they're the kind I need to hear. It's just as Kinue said to me…despite the 'gifts' I've received from my vampire heritage, I've rejected it so strongly…I'm really quite spoiled. I thought that I could just pretend myself into a human life, ignoring my vampire nature, and had a measure of pride that I would never drink blood directly from a human. But because of that…well, all of you accept me, and are so willing to share your blood with me, but my stubborn pride is…insulting that friendship." She sighed, then glanced askew at Kain. "But…what have you done to yourself? Despite what you said, I _can_ smell something different in you. And I know you're right. That blood…once I start craving it, it will drive me crazy. What are you, now?"

Kain turned and stared out the window. "I don't know," he said quietly. "I'm not sure. Aiden…Aiden Rylack, my father's friend, he's the one who helped me...obtain this power, this new body." He held a hand up and gazed at it. "From what he's told me…I've become something more than human now. I've obtained a power that's made me…something almost akin to Kamo, a spirit of magic. No, I shouldn't say that…it's like I'm moving on that evolutionary track, though."

Erika shook her head. "Did you…make this change willingly? Well, whatever. I understand. In this case, I can't refuse anymore…I'll make that contract with you now, Kain _-sensei_."

8-8-8

The moon was in the sky as they stood out on the balcony, shining down on them. Kamo formed his circle as Kain and Erika faced each other. "It this situation, I figured it was best not to have an audience," Kamo smirked. "I've made sure all the other girls are away. Now, if you kids would get on with this…."

"Sorry about this, Erika- _san_ ," Kain said softly.

Erika chuckled. "Saying it like this might insult a girl, you know…like you don't want to kiss her or something…."

As Kain chuckled in embarrassment, Erika suddenly darted forward to complete the kiss. Kain was surprised by the sudden motion, but, from sadly long practice, accepted it easily. The power flowed through them, and, it seemed, stayed with them even after it completed and they withdrew.

 _('It feels different this time,')_ Kain thought. _('Is it because it's the first time I've done it since I changed…or because I've done it with a vampire?')_

The card appeared in front of Kamo, but Erika was paying no heed to it. She stared up at Kain, her lips quivering, her teeth elongated, her eyes red. "K-Kain…" she murmured.

Kain put a hand to the back of her head and leaned her forward, putting her face on his shoulder. "It's all right, Erika," he told her. "Go ahead."

She sunk her fangs into his neck and, slowly, began to drink. _('And I didn't feel any pain or shock at all…was that because of what I am…or the supposed euphoria-inducing bite of the vampire?')_

Erika was also surprisingly thoughtful as she satisfied her hunger. _('This taste…it actually…tastes good…is this what it's like…to drink the blood of someone important to you…?')_

Two small streaks of blood escaped the wound and began to roll down Kain's back. And Erika, standing there with her fangs sunk into Kain's neck, let the tears flow slowly from her eyes.

8-8-8

Mai closed the door to Erika's room behind her and sighed. "Thank you for that," Kain said with a small smile. "She got a lot of her strength back thanks to that…but she still needs to recover."

Mai glanced almost sourly at Kain. "I've never felt sorrier for her than I do now," she muttered. "She went through worse than any of us…and now she's had to do the two things she never wanted to do. You let her drink from you, didn't you?"

"Right now, it's the best course, as you yourself mentioned. She'll recover." He smiled at her. "Because of who she is, and who her mother is, and who her _brother_ is, she knows less about vampires than she should. She's been fighting her instincts all this time, but a vampire's bloodthirst is partway between an addiction and a standard biological requirement. Denying herself blood inflames her instincts…but feeding herself properly will actually suppress it, leave her without the thirst for longer periods. And my blood, right now…with luck, she shouldn't even need to feed more than once or twice more before we go home."

"Yes, you're right…I always thought this was better. Who told you so much about vampires anyway? No, I know that—Aiden, right?"

Kain nodded. "Yeah…I wish I'd had him around more often before…he knows so much, about so many things…."

"Right. Maybe I should ask him about a few things. Like about what's happened to _you_ , since you won't tell me."

"Mai…."

Mai reached out and pulled at Kain's shirt, baring his neck down to almost his shoulders. "She fed on you, and there's no sign of it. You went through that battle earlier today, took an injury, and there's no sign of it." She released him and stepped back. "Of course, I'm making a lot of fuss about literally nothing. But…with what _I_ am…I can feel that something in you has definitely changed." She leveled a stare at him. "Just what did you go through these past three months? What have you done to yourself? This change couldn't have come without some kind of price…just what were you thinking…?"

"Oi, Tokiha…just calm down already."

The two turned and stared as the _nekomimi-_ wearing _chibi_ approached. "Chisame- _chan_ …."

"This is a choice he made himself," the little girl told her. "A choice he made…to protect us. Because he didn't want to trust chance or blind hope…because he wanted to do everything in his power to protect us." Chisame actually grinned. "As you'd suspect, he worried himself half to death before finally making a decision. I'm sure that getting shouted at by you was something he considered as well…so I'd not just reject it out of hand and give the matter some good long thought."

Mai quieted. "No…I didn't mean it like that…I mean…." She sighed. "It's something I can feel, now…power like this can't come without a price, right?"

"There's nothing to worry about, Mai," Kain assured her. "There's nothing dangerous about this…."

"Liar," she replied, glaring at him. "It _is_ dangerous, isn't it?"

Kain stared at her, then smiled slightly. "Dangerous…in what way? It's not killing me, it's not destroying my body…quite the opposite." He opened his hands. "My _body_ …is almost immune to permanent harm now. We only have theories, but…I am now _filled_ with magic. The magic that makes up my body regenerates it quickly. I can still be killed, but…theoretically, I'm immortal, now…I could live forever if I take care of myself. That…could be a pretty big price to pay, though. For someone like me, who thinks so much…is that a good enough price to pay for this power?"

Mai stared back at him, sighed, and then smiled, similar to how he did so often himself. "…Right. I get it. Sorry…I had just forgotten. I made a decision that I was going to follow you no matter how insanely hard you pushed yourself. But remember!" she suddenly put in more strongly. "Just like you want to protect us…we all want to protect you, too." She drew her card and manifested her artifact, letting her power blaze around her. "And just like you protect us, if you ever find yourself in trouble, like Erika was, we'll come and drag you out of the depths of hell if we have to! You got that!? You better be ready for it!"

Kain smiled and bowed in a Japanese manner. "I understand. I am in your care," he offered her.

Chisame smiled and Aiden watched the trio from the shadows at the end of the hall. _('She…really has grown into a powerful and straightforward kind of girl. To see her like that…I guess you guys did okay by her…right, Kalan? Gato?')_

F I N

 _Author's Note: Character Introduction: Yoruichi Shihôin_

 _This is the first major diversion from the Negima story as we settle into the tournament portion of the Magical World Arc. And this is where my changes really begin to take off._

 _I haven't explained any in a while, so I'll go ahead and talk about all the big changes I've made here, starting with…._

 _Kain's transformation. I copied the overall flow from Negima, but changed the tone severely, really. As I mentioned, when Negi went to train under Rakan, Rakan told him he never could reach his rival, Fate Averencus, via normal means, and so he gave him one chance to do so: the evil magic Magia Erebia, originally made by Eva in her early years, a truly dark magic that allows the user to consume spells in order to gain power but, of course, this magic consumes the user's soul as well. Negi chose it anyway, as it was the only way he could catch up to his father, which was still his main obsession. It worked_ too _well for him in some ways, because he did have severe darkness hiding in his heart—all the pain and hate and heartache hiding in him from the destruction of his village and the absence of his parents, as well as all his doubts and fears (those traits I most identify with). But I just didn't want Kain to be evil. I used the lines of the original to suggest a 'dark' and 'light' path for Kain, but Aiden really used those terms only to make sure Kain was totally sure he wanted to take such a huge risk. Asuna, of course, went nuts when she found out, and this power dogged him the whole rest of his time in the magic world. Kain's undergone the worst spots of that transformation—if there's a further price to pay for turning his back on humanity, his immortal self will pay for it years down the line, but Mai (in this story, the partially-awakened Crystal Princess) can sense just how intense this change was, as can the vampire Erika (who we'll get to in a minute)._

 _The tournament was originally a two-person team battle without too many details, especially compared to the Mahora one. In my case, I'm changing it up quite a bit—because I always try to think up the details, I put more thought into mine, although I'm not going to have every fight—among others, even not including the preliminaries, there are sixty-four contestants, and I don't want to put all my efforts into working those out. But there will be a half-dozen or so big battles, compared to Negima's, where the only one that mattered was Negi/Kôtarô vs. Rakan/Kagetarô. So some of the parts that weren't described in detail I have to carefully work out, so I can adapt the important events coming up. There was an undisclosed amount of preliminary battles necessary to enter the proper tournament, but since I've already worked that all out, I've had to tweak things a little…I'll probably go more into those changes down the line._

 _Primarily, I decided to make my tournament a single-person instead of two-man teams. They are far more common, and the only real reason for the two-man was so that Akamatsu-_ sensei _could have Negi and Kôtarô fight together for it. While I didn't mind them being a team for the league they got started in, I figured that the final tournament should be the same as it is in all other anime: either a single champion, or a team of about five, and I didn't want to stretch it out to a group and complicate things. Besides, this gives me several special plotlines to use, including a final Kenjirô vs. Kain fight he's been wanting all this time (and which poor Kôtarô never got) and it's easier than trying to find any kind of team battle for Byakuya to be involved in._

 _Now, the Nodoka battle: Nodoka just had some treasure hunters, as I've mentioned, and I didn't think anything of these minor characters, so I tossed them for the awesome Fairy Tail guild. Nodoka being attacked was the first moment for Negi to show his new awesome power, so it fit. Originally, she was attacked by bounty hunters who planned on using her as bait to catch Setsuna and Kaede, and almost succeeded—they were tough, but nothing compared to new Negi. However, it would take supremely well-prepared and powerful bounty hunters to take Fairy Tail, and introducing such here was not something I wanted to do…the Obsidian Star's plots were a much better idea._

 _Plus, this let me prepare my other necessary subplot: freeing Erika from the Obsidian Star's clutches. Even annoying Anya being captive for the entirety of that massive arc was too much, and Lina was so important she was auto-jettisoned from that role…but I wanted somebody there. Erika became a good choice, because of this whole vampire angle…and even so I really,_ really _feel sorry for her. I couldn't leave her here anymore. So, this gave me a lot of things I could do: bring in Kisuke Urahara (auto-added to this story because of Kalan's involvement with Soul Society), show off our heroes a bit, and have them strike the Obsidian Star with a hard left before the main events. And this is just the kind of stress moment that finally gives impetus for the Kain/Erika contract. I have been planning this moment out for a while. Now she's back in the party, in safety, and safely contracted to Kain._

 _The bite/cry scene after the contract kiss was lifted, again, from the Fortune Arterial anime…during a Festival, Erika's urges go out of control and Kohei lets her bite him, but Erika cries during the act. Although (in my story, at least) doing this is better for her—and the best-described reasons were all suggested in the manga and will be gotten into farther down the line when they have the opportunity to see her mother again—it is the last thing she wanted, and so she weeps for the loss of her vow never to feed directly on humans…broken on, perhaps, the person she cares about the most (obviously, she's been one of the ones_ quite _attracted to Kain who never would admit it thus far). But she'll be better after this, which will let her resume her part in Setsuna's place, as Tsukuyomi's (here, Kinue's) rival._

 _And we finish with Mai's declaration of devotion to Kain. This is adapted from Asuna's original rant about Negi's dark power, which happened right after the battle. Of course, my story has so much more craziness going on she never had much of a chance before to talk about it. Now she does…and she doesn't have as much reason to go berserk, because it isn't_ really _dark magic or a dark path, but she is concerned for Kain, obviously. And her stubborn insistence on helping shoulder his troubles is important here. Asuna's final declaration struck a cord with Rakan, and Mai's vigor strikes an even bigger cord with Aiden, who was much closer to the little girl. My friend Ryan, the Aiden inspiration, is hugely interested in the Aiden-Mai relationship dynamic (can't blame him) and I will enjoy touching upon it here and there. In fact, Aiden will probably be the most pressing…nah, shouldn't give spoilers here._

 _I wanted to do a lot more with this chapter, but there just wasn't time, and I didn't want to stretch out the melodrama by drawing it out into two chapters. I would have liked to go into some of the fights a little more, particularly Natsu trying to take on Dynamis, I would have liked to do more with Yoruichi (see below), but this is already a big chapter…so I had to skim it some and focus on what was necessary. I also would have liked to have made more sense of Jade's situation—it probably feels kind of 'what's going on?' right now. I'll at least go into detail with it later, but Van having Jade's replication tech at the end of TotA was important, and it's actually useful to have here—in Negima, as we'll learn from my notes later on at that point, the Cosmo Entelecheia bad guys had virtual god-like power over everyone except Negi and his students, so they had to become the main stars. This power won't make sense in my universe, and the good guys have so many more powers, the bad guys will need all sorts of avenues to compete. In order to give them the power of Replication in short notice, since I kicked their tail around so much back when they had no chance back during the previous Acts, I had two choices: either just 'deus ex machina' give it to them out of nowhere (they figured it out on their own!) or slip in a guy with mind-control powers who can secretly work the secret out of Jade. The latter was less 'WTC!?' confusing and stupid, so I went that route. Right now, it's an afterthought, so that's kind of the intent…when it becomes a bigger deal, Jade will reluctantly go into greater deal about it._

 _The guy doing it, of course, is now named Corai, and he is a fusion of the remnants of the three brother-villains introduced (and then disposed of) in Act 9—Horius, Kalovus, and Koltas. As a fusion, he has all their intelligence, talents, and skills, and will be one of the final bosses. I always planned him/them reincarnating or whatever about this point anyway, so having him take the opportunity to drag the secret out of Jade was good. Plus, now he has to go retrieve the secret (I'll go into more detail about that later, too) so he will be excused from action for a little while._

 _Anyway, we have one more big encounter with the Obsidian Star before we get into the tournament, and at the same time we'll finish bringing in the lost lambs (except Yue, who is still amnesiac). This is coming up, and will probably finish Act 12. It will likely take 4 or 5 more chapters to do so._

 _Y oruichi Shihôin is one of the side-heroines of Bleach, an important friend of Kisuke Urahara and his former boss/captain. When Kisuke was framed, she abandoned the Soul Society to help him escape (although somehow, she was not actually physically banished/kept from returning as he was). Although, as a former captain, she must have had a_ zanpaku-tô _and_ Bankai _, she is never shown using it, instead relying on her powerful hand-to-hand arts, including the Soul Reaper equivalent of_ kanka _(from the descriptions, I could say in this universe it is exactly that, as they are that close). I would have liked to have her more, but she isn't gone yet—she isn't major, but she'll be around helping out here and there, especially with any training our heroes have to undergo down the line here._

 _So, let's move on to the next chapter…._


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter Six: Star-Struck, Part One: Breaking News

The evening of the day before the start of the Festival….

"Yukari- _chan_!"

"Kazumi!"

The two girls embraced fiercely. They were both babbling over the top of each other….

"I'm sorry, Yukari- _chan_ , after we didn't explain anything you went and got into this trouble, and now you're a slave and it's all my fault…."

"Kazumi, you're okay! We were so worried about you, not knowing what had happened, and I'm sorry I followed when I said I was going to trust you but you and Kenjirô- _kun_ were just acting so strange and I…."

Both girls trailed off, took in deep breaths, and burst out laughing. "I'm sorry," Kazumi said. "I wanted to come in and see you yesterday when we arrived, but things got so hectic…."

"I heard…but Kenjirô- _kun_ said you rescued Erika- _fukukaichô_ …s-she was captured by the bad guys, right? Well…I mean, that's probably worse than our situation…we're slaves, but they have to treat us well, and at least we can be bought out of it…."

"That's right!" Kazumi insisted. "Kai—Kalan- _san_ will do everything in his power to free you, just wait and see! We won't let you stay slaves!"

"I know he will…he and…Kôtarô- _kun_ both, right?"

The two girls embraced again. The Baka Trio looked on in bemusement, but Mama clapped her hands. "All right, everyone! I know you're glad to see each other, but we're still running this business here! Better get back to work!"

"R-right," Yukari agreed, and then turned back to Kazumi. "Ah, in any case, since you're here as a guest, why don't you take a table and we'll wait on you as soon as we're able? They do serve some great things here…."

"I'd like that…if you get a break, w-we can catch up…it's been a crazy adventure all this time…."

Meanwhile, Hinagiku was finally visiting with the slaves….

"Hina- _chan_!" Miki and Izumi threw themselves onto their _kaichô_ , and Riza attempted to glomp her from behind.

"Jeez, you three!" she cursed them. "What are you doing in this situation!?"

"Y-you shouldn't be like that, Hina," Miki muttered. "We've been in a terrible fix for three months now…shouldn't you be more concerned about our welfare…?"

"Obviously you're as energetic as ever, and I've heard all about how Kain- _sensei_ has taken care of you," Hinagiku huffed. "It's clear you haven't been enjoying this…but it's all your fault, isn't it? We warned you not to come, not to follow us, that it was supremely dangerous…and _who_ had to completely disregard that advice?" She glared around at the trio, who had the grace to look to sheepish.

"But Hina- _chan_ , you're confused about things," Izumi giggled. "Kalan- _san_ has been the one taking care of us! Ah, was he out looking for you? Is that where he's been all this time?"

"What are you talking about?" Hinagiku demanded. "Ka…."

Miki suddenly grabbed Hina's mouth to cover it and started dragging her away. Izumi and Riza stared in confusion as they disappeared around the corner.

"W-what's this about!?" Hinagiku demanded angrily after Miki finally released her.

Miki put a finger to her lips. "Be quiet and listen, Hina. The truth is, Izumi doesn't know that Kain and Kalan are the same person…she still thinks that Kalan is Kain's cousin, and that he's doing all this for our sake. _Especially_ for her sake."

Hinagiku stared at her. "What are you talking about?"

Miki sighed. "Look," she explained wearily, "while playing around with those things, Kain- _sensei_ and Kenjirô- _kun_ took us on a couple dates in those older forms that they're using for the tournament. Naturally, because we knew nothing of magic, they pretended to be the older cousins of the boys. They went back to using them when we were all lost in this world…."

"Yes, I know that, they had to avoid detection and it is a great idea," Hinagiku interrupted. "So?"

"…Did you hear about how we became slaves?"

"Of course." When Kain had made his initial explanation, naturally Hinagiku had exploded with rage and demanded they be rescued immediately before the boy finally talked her out of it. Although Mai could now save them from the evil collars at will, stealing a million juls worth of slaves would cause too much trouble for the little band of outlaws, and now Kain had to finish what he had started. "What about it?"

"Well, since he was in disguise, Kain-as-Kalan was the one we met when he showed up to save us from our slavery, and Izumi was still rather sick at the time (and being abused by one of our fellow employees). Kalan's daring rescue is now permanently inscribed on Izumi's heart…she's depending on him. We can't break that illusion."

Hinagiku was even more confused. "What are you talking about?"

Miki sighed again. Sometimes this brilliant girl could be so dense…. "Look, Izumi had a bit of a crush on Kalan before, but after being in this horrible situation and in such poor health, his dashing arrival made him become her knight in shining armor and she fell completely head-over-heels for him. She is desperately in love with Kalan and believes the man himself, not her teacher, has come to save her."

Hinagiku stared. "Izumi is in love with Kain…no, 'Kalan'? So why don't you just tell her the truth?"

"We can't do that!" Miki insisted dramatically, but still very quietly. "Izumi is still in pretty dire straits, you know. It would be the shock of her life! The death of her hopes and dreams! If Izumi learns that her hero is a fake, she might just drop dead right there! We _have_ to keep up the charade about the two people around her as long as possible!"

"I-it's that serious?" Hinagiku muttered in shock. "I-I see…this doesn't feel right, not at all…but if you're certain."

"Absolutley, Hina," Miki confirmed, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Incidentally, we are deeply touched as well that you've come here to save us. Once more we are in your care…."

"Enough of that!" Hinagiku sighed stomping back to the group. "I hope this 'slavery' has taught you all the value of hard work and diligence," she continued, stomping back up to the other pair.

"Oh, it has," Riza agreed, her eye sparkling with knowledge as she gave Hina a thumbs-up. "We now know the true joy of idleness. As soon as we get back home to Mahora, we're going to spend every day skipping school and sleeping in late just because we can…."

" _That's not what you should be learning!_ "

"What were you and Hina talking about?" Izumi asked Miki with some of her original cheerfulness.

"Ah…it's about Kain- _sensei_ ," Miki murmured, putting a hand on Izumi's shoulder. "We tried to keep it a secret, but I just lie to you anymore. Kain- _sensei…_ Kalan- _san_ too…are actually of the royal bloodline of this city, Orimus, capital of the ancient kingdom of Kanev."

" _Eh!?_ Really!?"

"Yes. And after this tournament is over and Kalan wins it, he's going to reveal his real heritage to the world, and will ascend to its throne and reclaim his rightful dominion! And, as the king of Kanev, he'll need a queen to ascend up with him…what do you think Izumi? Doesn't the 'rescued slave girl ascending to royalty' scenario sound particularly incredible?"

"D-don't tease me with such things, Miki- _chan_!"

"Would you stop filling Izumi's head with more nonsense!?" Hinagiku added.

8-8-8

Minus Erika, sleeping peacefully in her room, and Kazumi, who was staying with Yukari, the rest of the assembled White Wings and their new allies gathered on the balcony at the top of their estate. It was now very late in the evening, but Kain was in a hurry to get some things started.

He glanced between the pair. "Are you two all healed up?"

"Silly question," Akari insisted, stretching. "You were babying me, but I was fine enough to fight for Erika- _chan_ too! Our healers are great!"

"We're more than prepared," Kiami smirked. "So get on with it already."

Kain nodded. "Right. Sorry, for being overprotective…but the fact that I needed you two ready for this was one of the reasons I wanted you to stay out of the fighting earlier. As I've mentioned to others…right now, the only part of the plan that's necessary that we're not completely sure of is the location of the Gateport. If we trust Urahara Kisuke's word—and I think he's proven more than trustworthy so far—our two missing members, Momo and Yue, will be joining us shortly, so all we need is to find is that Gateport. I need reliable scouts who can locate it for us—it's in the custody of the Halteese Republic, and it's top-secret information. Nanami will transport you in the _El-Hazard_ , but for the nitty-gritty, we need actual bodies to investigate, and there's no one more reliable for that than the disciples of Yokohama. So, Akari- _san_ , Kiami- _san_ , Hikaru- _kun_ …I ask you all to be our eyes and ears and find us our way home." He bowed to them.

"Ah, of course, of course," Akari muttered. "It's kinda sad…I was hoping to watch the tournament, myself…."

"That's right," Hikaru agreed with a smile. "This should be even grander than the last tournament at Mahora. It's a shame we're not getting a chance to participate, too…."

"But we understand," Kiami said with unusual seriousness. "Finding our way home is the top priority…we humbly accept this assignment."

"Most importantly, however," Nanami cut in before Kain could overly thank them again, "in order to maximize our chances and minimize the danger, our three scouts need to be contracted to Kain- _sensei_ , for travel/communication emergencies. So, are you three ready for that?"

Akari flushed and put her fingers together in embarrassment. "Ah…y-yeah…I g-guess so…it's just…."

"It's so cute how she can face anyone in combat but is such a maiden for something so simple," Kiami chuckled. "Well then, I've had fun being a spectator like this, but I admit, it's a good time to finally get into it. I'll go first, if you don't mind."

Kain nodded, not even flushing this time. "Right. Let's get it done."

Kamo made his circle, and Kiami stepped in close, they shared their kiss, then drew apart without apology, and, as Kiami took her card, Kamo called out, "Okay, Akari- _chan_ , quit stalling and get with it!"

Muttering, Akari took her place in the circle, and she and Kain shared their kiss. Kain couldn't help but notice her rapidly quickening heartbeat as it took place, compared to Kiami's almost disturbing calm. She withdrew a bit too quickly when Kamo announced the success of the action.

Kain turned to Hikaru. "And you now?"

Hikaru chuckled. "I've wanted this for a long time…I just didn't want to supplant my friends who still hadn't gone. I'm all ready…as long as we aren't kissing."

"You saw Kenjirô's," Kamo chuckled. "Get in there and I'll repeat the oath for you if you need it."

The two clasped hands and completed the third Contract.

"Three in one go," Chisame muttered with a wry smile and in exasperation. "Well, only two kisses, but with _Fukukaichô_ earlier this evening, that's three more girls in just one night. Our Don Juan continues his conquests…."

Akari flushed and hid behind her card, muttering. Kiami, however, merely slipped over to Chisame and bent down to put an arm playfully around the _chibi_ 's shoulders. "That kind of accusation would be a lot more convincing, Chisame- _chan_ , if you weren't already contracted to the boy yourself. You act like you _haven't_ kissed him…."

"L-lay off! I-I-I just did what I had to in the emergency…."

"In any case, you should see what you've been given," Hikaru remarked examining the scabbard he now held in his hand. "This seems…appropriate…."

Kamo whistled. "Oh, nice. A scabbard forged by Tamahori, a Japanese mage who spent a lot of time in Avalon. He even studied a bit under Merlin himself when he was young. That scabbard has much of the same power attached to Excalibur's scabbard—a powerful defensive item that can create strong barriers and instantly heal great wounds. And, of course, as a magical scabbard it will greatly enhance your _iaijutsu_ by increasing the speed and efficiency with which you store mana in it for your strikes. A golden fighter's tool for just the guy who needs it."

"Hmm." Hikaru removed his sword from his old scabbard and placed it in his new artifact. "I suppose I should rely on keeping it manifest, then…no reason not to. I shall miss my old partner, but a warrior must make use of all the tools at his disposal." He turned and handed the old scabbard to Kain. "My master, can I trust you to keep this prized possession safe as long as needed…?"

Kain actually flushed at that half-teasing comment and said, "P-please, don't use things like 'master'…that's just too creepy. But I will keep this for you." He took it and slipped it into his cloak. Hikaru bowed to him in thanks.

Kiami chuckled. "Well, my master, I will try out my own then. Spring forth." As Kain glared at her, she waved her card around and…it turned into a rather tattered-looking cloth, apparently a blanket or sheet of some kind.

She inspected it with interest…most thought there must have been some kind of mistake, but Kamo grew excited. "Oh, yes! Oh yes! That one! Brilliant!"

Kiami, seemingly ignoring the rodent, swept it around her quizzically, and finally let it fall down around her…and then she vanished underneath it as it covered her, leaving it flat on the ground. Then the cloth, too, vanished, leaving no trace of it. "Oh!" the gathered crowd chanted in surprise. "How amazing!"

"But, it really isn't all that different than her normal _ninja_ abilities you know?" Nanami pointed out. "I mean, she's already a master at _ninja_ invisibility and all that…."

Suddenly Kiami reappeared, whipping the cloth up. "How amazing! There's quite a marvelous house in there…fully-stocked larder and everything, and it seems to replenish itself…."

"A-A house!?"

"That's right," Kamo chuckled. "That's called the Tengu no Kakuremino, the Tengu's Magic Cloak, and it's a time/space artifact similar to Kain's own cloak. It should prove very useful for enhancing our stealth abilities." He turned to Akari. "Your turn, _Ojô-chan_. What did you get?"

Akari looked at it. "Hmm…well…appear." Her card changed into a crystal-adorned choker that settled around her throat. She tried to stare down at it with, naturally, a large degree of difficulty. "Ah…this is…?"

Kamo just stared. "Um…interesting. The Absolution Choker. It's…an interesting enhancement item. Well, beating people up is your strength, and that artifact will help you with that, of course…."

"What's…that supposed to mean?" Akari asked, semi-sweetly.

"Never mind. It's a good fighter's artifact, Akari- _chan_. Just…don't keep _it_ around too much, okay?"

"Um, right…well, disappear, then." And it returned to her card.

Kain nodded at them all as he took his three new cards and deposited them in his cloak. "Right, then. Best of luck to all of you." He turned to the other two figures preparing to leave. "Minsc…Aerie…you're going with them, then? You're sure?"

"Hikaru is Minsc's comrade-in-arms!" the berserker warrior proclaimed boldly. "If he is engaged in such an important quest, we shall naturally accompany him! All his tasks will be the more swiftly accomplished thanks to my fine steel!"

Aeries chuckled nervously. "W-well, Minsc is actually quite good at stealth, despite his…energy. I think we can be of some help to them. Besides…I'm not good…with Festivals like this…."

And so the six began to make their farewells to the group, but Delryn called after Akari, "Remember, now…you still owe me one of those as well!"

Without another word, Akari jumped onto the platform and rose into the waiting _El-Hazard_.

Kain glanced askew at Delryn. "What's that about?"

"Nothing. I just have to say, though," he said, dropping a hand on Kain's shoulder, "you are the _luckiest_ bastard in the whole world."

"I'll pretend I don't know what you're talking about," Kain muttered. "In any case, I haven't had a chance to thank you yet…you were a great help to my students and friends…so thank you." He bowed to him.

"Oi, enough of that," Delryn muttered, waving him off. "You're way too stiff and formal, and you're not that much younger than me, so just forget about it."

"Okay then," Kain said easily. "Can I ask about you and your dad, then?"

This time Delryn threw a serious scowl at Kain. Kain chuckled. "I see…you're like Yoshimori- _kun_ , then, huh? Your parentage is more a burden to you? You really take after him…."

"Don't even start. Don't you get tired of being the 'son of the Grand Archmage'?"

Kain shrugged. "Not really, no. But I've never had to live in his shadow…just his memory."

This caused the brash swordsman to fall silent. "Yeah…sorry, I didn't mean…."

"No, don't worry about it. I'm used to it." He smiled and there was a glint in his eye. "If this all goes well enough…maybe I'll even get him back. But we'll see."

"Yada, yada, dads, dads," Kenjirô sighed, joining them. "Enough about that. So, you're entering the tournament too, Delryn? That sounds grand…I might get a chance to fight a whole slew of good fighters…."

"Heh, maybe…but if you encounter me, that's the last chance you'll get…."

"Oh, really…that sounds great…."

The three youths departed, Kenjirô and Delryn bantering around Kain, and Inuyasha watched them go. "Those kids sure are carefree," he muttered. "Worrying about contracts and tournaments when we're so close to the Obsidian Star…."

"Well, not everyone can be simple-minded on a single track like Inuyasha," Shippô put in. He looked up at Kagome. "Hey, Kagome, that card you have is an artifact-contract thing too, right? Does that mean that you had to kiss Kain like that?"

"Eh!? Uh, yeah, well, I did, but it was an emergency and all…he was dying, and it was the only way I could save him…."

"In any case, we're ready for the final stage," Kajirô sighed. "Just a bit longer, and if we make it through, we'll be heading home…."

"Yes…I guess so…" Hinagiku muttered.

Chisame cast an odd glance her way. "I thought you were one of the ones that wanted to be out of this nonsensical magical world as soon as possible," she said almost accusingly.

"Well, yeah, maybe," Hinagiku offered grudgingly. "It isn't that. It's just…I know Kain- _sensei_ is worried about the rest of our class, especially those girls who had nothing to do with this before, but I can't stand the thought that we're running away from the Obsidian Star…and it seems like that's what we're doing. We'll fight them if they're in our way, and I know Kain- _sensei_ would prefer to do something about them, but our priority is getting everyone home safely. I mean, I agree in theory, but I can't stand to think that we're running away…."

"Oh, c'mon…we're middle school kids…we're not even supposed to be involved," Chisame denied. "I know how you feel, but your responsibility, like Kain- _sensei_ 's, is to your class and school first, _Kaichô_. Besides, there's no reason to think it's our only chance. Once everyone is safe we can come back and deal with the Obsidian Star…." She froze and trailed off, then shook her head. "No, no! I mean, when we get back, _you guys_ can all come running back here to throw yourselves into danger. Once I get safely home, I'm staying! I've had enough of these crazy life-and-death situations!" She trailed off, muttering to herself.

Tear, who had been observing the exchange carefully, finally approached. "It's not really true that this is 'none of our business,'" she observed. "At least, regarding Hinagiku- _san_ , myself, and others, this is very much our business. I agree that our first priority is the safety of the students of Mahora Academy, and I don't want to encourage anyone to abandon that duty…but there are things Hinagiku- _san_ should know about the magical world and her connection to it."

Hinagiku stared at Tear quizzically. "Oi, wait, what?" Chisame demanded.

Rin also stared at Tear. "Are you sure you should be talking about this, Tear? The Council decided…."

"The Council is not all-knowing, and never foresaw this possibility," Tear replied curtly. "Most of all, it didn't foresee the betrayal of Van Grants. Since she's here, in this situation, it would be more irresponsible and dangerous to keep her out of the loop. If he were to tell her himself at the wrong time…." She glanced over at Kagome and caught her attention. "Kagome- _san_ …Tokine- _san_ …you should come listen, too, since this concerns you." She cast a glance at Kajirô, who sighed and nodded.

"W-what's this about?" Hinagiku demanded crossly, glaring between Tear and Kajirô. "Were you keeping things from me…?"

"Like the secret of magic itself, this was not our decision, Hinagiku- _san_ ," Kajirô muttered. "But now…as Tear- _senpai_ says, it's best if we reveal everything to you…about your parents and the magical world."

"M-my parents…? What are you talking about!? Ten years ago, my parents abandoned me, with an 80 million yen debt…."

"What also happened ten years ago?" Rin demanded suddenly. "You should know that…."

Hinagiku froze, considering. "Kain- _sensei_ 's village…was destroyed, right…? But…that shouldn't have anything to do with me…."

"Kalan Lockeheart was a war hero," Tear declared. "Even though he saved the world and was adored by the masses, the governments of Arcanus Myrror feared him and secretly sought ways to quietly neutralize him. But he did have some supporters, especially on the Magic Council of Mahora and its allies. After his disappearance, they placed protection around the infant Kain Lockeheart and his surrogate mother, Mira Talin. Still, they were unable to prevent some secret hand from raising an army to utterly destroy his village…but somehow, that destruction wasn't complete, and Kain survived. He was taken to greater protection within Sleiyn and Caelar University…but that was not the only action they took at that time.

"Kalan Lockeheart had been discovered alive…the only proof of that was a five-year-old boy, hardly a reliable witness, but _something_ single-handedly destroyed all those demons that threatened the village, and, furthermore, Kalan's most famous artifact was left with the child. Because of this, the Mahora Council decided to raise a team of mages to journey into the magical world and find the trail of Kalan Lockeheart…to see if he could be found and recovered.

"They selected the best and brightest from that generation and sent them out. However, they disappeared without a trace. For years we believed them dead. And those seven souls were the parents or siblings of several of us here: Vandesdelca Grants, Tôsaka Tokiomi, Higurashi Konoka, Yukimura Tokio, Tsukai Kobirô, and the Shirasagis, Shirasagi Tomu and Shirasagi Mika."

The collected group stared at Tear in shock. "The…the Shirasagis…my…parents…?" Hinagiku murmured.

"Oi…oi, oi, oi, wait a minute!" Chisame suddenly burst out. "You…you can't be serious… _Kaichô_ is from a mage family!? That can't be right! You can't drop this kind of plot twist at this point of the story! Okay, so it's not as bad as it would be Konoe or Hirai or one of the Baka Trio suddenly turned out to be a magic girl, but still! This is _Kaichô_ , one of the few level-headed people in our class and my rare ally in fighting the nonsense of this world! She can't be…."

"Nonetheless, it's true," Tear interjected curtly, cutting off Chisame's rant. Muttering, Chisame turned around and crouched down, her arms wrapped around her knees in the classic heartbroken Japanese pose.

"W-wait," Kagome said. "Well, this is news for me, too…about my mother…Father never told me what happened to her, but I guess I kinda figured it was something like this…but more importantly, if Hina- _chan_ is a magic girl, then that means that Katsura- _sensei_ , too, is…?"

 _[Hinagiku grasped her head in confusion. "W-w-wait a minute," she demanded. "H-how long have you known about magic, anyway!?"_

 _Yukiji belched. "How long? From the beginning, of course."]_

"Of course she is," Hinagiku muttered. "I…didn't _want_ to remember that scene, but… _Onee-chan_ did know about magic, after all. Of course, it makes sense when you think about it. How else has someone as worthless as her been allowed to be a teacher for so long?"

"This is her _sister_ she's talking about, right?" Inuyasha queried.

"But…what about the 80 million yen debt?" Hinagiku demanded. "If…if my real parents left on an assignment from the Magic Council to find Kalan Lockeheart, why were we left with a debt like that?"

"Well, the Shirasagis _were_ notorious gamblers," Kajirô murmured. "They often borrowed debts, and then repaid them with astonishing speed…they borrowed one more large sum right before their adventure…for luck…."

Hinagiku turned to stare at him. "Kaji- _kun_ …how do you know…?"

"Do you remember when we first met, Hinagiku- _san_? From how you've always talked…it seems you don't…your earliest memory seems to be your parents leaving you. But I remember that scene, too…after all, our families were friends. The Shirasagis were agents…of the _Tsukai_ family…."

 _[There were three shadowed figures walking away. The last one, Hinagiku's mother, left a small hairpin in Hinagiku's hand. "With everything that's been happening, we weren't able to get anything better than that for you," her mother said. "But when we come back, we'll bring you something better…something much better. Maybe even another playmate…."_

 _The tallest one with his dark black hair turned back as well. "Take care of Hina-_ chan _, Kaji-_ kun _. Yuki-_ chan _isn't always reliable, you know…."]_

Tears were just starting to fall from the corner of Hinagiku's eyes. "T-that's right, I…I forgot all of it…the pain…of abandonment…made me forget it all…."

She even remembered the tiny wand she used as a child, already casting spells just like her parents. Yes…it all made sense….

"The Shirasagis were in the habit of borrowing large sums of money," Rin continued. "They then earned it all back and double in short order…then usually gave the money away at some point. They acquired a lot of enemies that way. When they suddenly disappeared, the debt collectors put pressure on Katsura- _sensei_ and she had to work hard to pay it off…but it wasn't all her doing. Eventually certain of the families were able to step in and help out. Your adoptive parents, the Katsuras, are part of the magic circle, but they never had much magical power, and don't get involved in that side of things…they're actually your aunt and uncle, too, Katsura- _san_ and Shirasagi- _san_ being sisters and all. But after everything that had happened to your family, they decided to raise you as a normal girl, outside of magic, and allowed you to forget about it."

"Why…are you telling me all this now?" Hinagiku demanded, shaking her head. "I mean…if you wanted to tell me about it all…wouldn't it have been better when I first started getting involved in magic?"

Kajirô and Tear exchanged glances. "It's…because of what we've seen since we arrived," Tear continued. "We never knew what happened to that party…they just suddenly vanished. We suspected the Obsidian Star, but we had no clues…no proof. Until now…because of what we've seen on this trip."

Hinagiku came to a realization. "Of course…your brother, Kaji- _kun_ …we encountered him, and…everyone else was somehow fused in that dark soul, that little brat Nagi said…but…."

"No…not everyone," Tear denied, shaking her head. "I met my own brother, Van Grants. He…turned on them all, and joined the Obsidian Star. He's working against us…and we don't know when he'll strike against us. It was time that you knew."

"My mother, too," Kagome murmured. "Taken in that way…and your father, Tokine- _chan_? You knew?" Sadly, her friend nodded.

Hinagiku sighed. "I see. It seems that many of us here…are more involved with the Obsidian Star than we thought." She shook her head. "That's…a lot to take in…if you excuse me, I think I'll head out into town for a bit…."

She paused at the top of the stairs heading down from the roof and looked back at her friends. "But, thank you…all of you…for telling me all this."

8-8-8

A short time earlier that evening….

The two girls barreled out of the airship nearly as soon as it touched down. They gazed around in wonder. "Wow! This is amazing!" Kaoru breathed. "Well, not that Avalon wasn't amazing too, but this magical floating city! And there are so many more nonhumans here than there were in Avalon…."

"You shouldn't stare, Kaoru, it isn't polite," Riku insisted.

There was a chuckle behind them as the two young men followed more casually behind. "There's nothing wrong with it," their primary escort, Knight of the Round Wein Cruz told them. "As long as you don't go around actively insulting them, I don't think any of them will mind too much. This is the Memorial Festival, after all, and they are well aware that most humans aren't too familiar with their races."

"Of course!" insisted Hans Bearnt, the 'squire', for lack of a better term, of Wein. "Just as Chief says, this is a Festival! Ah, I can't believe we're finally here! We've never been able to come to the Festival before…."

"This is much larger than the others," Wein replied. "And there are special circumstances. Not to mention that before this, we didn't have the position for the privilege…but thanks to Riku- _san_ and Kaoru- _san_ , we'll get to enjoy it now."

Wein Cruz was a young man, not quite out of his teens, and was the youngest and most junior member of Avalon's elite military unit, the Knights of the Round. His black hair was short, but with longer bangs up front, and fairly carefully groomed. His standard attire consisted of a sleeveless white shirt with dark detached sleeves and black slacks, and he carried no weapon openly—but the two girls had already witnessed the young man in training, and seen the magic of the ring he carried that transformed at his command into a powerful deathscythe.

Hans was a freckled-faced youth even younger than Wein, and was incredibly energetic. He was dressed in wild and rough leather traveling clothes and wore goggles over his wild red hair. He was Wein's primary aid and soldier under his command, and had been since Wein graduated from the Knight's Academy two years ago and assumed his command—Hans had, in fact, been rescued by Wein during an emergency field assignment one day while he was still an academy cadet and the younger man had been quite in awe of the heroic knight. He had applied for the military academy the next day and had managed to graduate from it in time to serve under Wein's command (naturally, the regular grunts' academy had a lesser curriculum than the knights'). He had become his inseparable aide ever since, leaping cheerfully to every command Wein gave him. He had little magical power, although he knew a few spells, but he was a remarkable expert with his weapon of choice, throwing daggers.

And so Artoria had assigned this young duo to be their primary bodyguards and escorts over the last few months while they were in Avalon, and again here at Orimus for the Festival.

"It's sad that Artoria couldn't join us here," Kaoru remarked.

"It can't be helped," Riku said, as usual more practical but really quite in agreement with Kaoru's observation. "I mean, an important head of state has a lot of duties to take care of, especially in a diplomatic peace festival like this."

"That is true," Wein agreed. "If her Majesty were here with you, it would probably be harder to enjoy the Festival the way young girls like you should. Speaking of which, you're in charge now—we're just here to keep you safe, so go and enjoy everything to your heart's content."

"Yeah…do whatever you need to," Hans added. "But, ah, you do have friends here waiting for you or something, right?"

"Ah…that is a good question…" Riku murmured. "We came without any kind of plan at all. We sent word to Kain- _sensei_ that we were all right and would be coming, but we don't know anything about his plans…." She giggled and then pointed. "Other than that he's in that tournament. Look at him, acting all cool like an adult."

Indeed, there was the huge banner advertising the Kalan Lockeheart cup, with the face of the elder Kain prominently filling it. "Ah, he's so amazing!" Kaoru agreed. "I mean, I always knew Kain- _sensei_ was special, but to think that he's such an important person, the son of such an important person, in this world…an Archmage all his own or whatever…." She turned back to Wein. "Hey, do you think that you can get us into the fighters' area to see Kain- _sensei_? Being a Knight of the Round and all?"

"Well, I can try," Wein laughed. "I'm still rather inexperienced there, so my name doesn't carry as much weight. But it's worth a look…if nothing else, we can find Matta and see if we can look around the arena grounds with him, since he's entering…."

"Well, let's head that way then," Riku said. "The directions in the city here are pretty plainly pointing that way. But, if we see any good food and stuff to enjoy on the way, we might as well…we're here for a festival, after all!"

8-8-8

"Nina Blan de Windbloom and her squad reporting for duty!"

Natsuki glanced back at the group and smiled slightly. As the #1 Coral and the most politically connected of the six (being a princess and all) Nina had been the only choice to lead this squad, despite Yue's fine showing in the test, and Yue, the only person could have reasonably argued it, was quietly rather happy not to have a leadership role thrust upon her. Of course, Nina's serious attitude wasn't always well-accepted by her comrades, but Natsuki was sure even Nina wouldn't be able to go through this festival without letting her hair down a little.

Still, the six looked good lined up as they were, in the blue-green HiME dresses Shizuru had selected for their at-work uniform on this excursion. Their GEMs had also been upgraded to Pearls for this, since they needed to have enough power to be reliable guardians. "Well, thank you for reporting so promptly," Natsuki said. "But we're not quite on watch yet. Not to say that your duty isn't important. Naturally, there are no more appropriate guardians than the HiME for the ruler of our host nation. Tomorrow, you will guard him at the opening of the Festival. Until they, you are to escort him as he takes a look around town."

They turned in surprise as, chuckling, Sargon walked up to them. "Well, I shall be the envy of the Festival with six such lovely escorts. Shall we go, my HiME?"

"Of course, your Majesty!" both Nina and Yue proclaimed with perhaps too much seriousness.

Shiho and Erstin shared a bemused glance as Sargon chuckled again. "Well, you are supposed to protect me while we're down there…but remember that this is a festival, so be sure to enjoy yourselves as well…."

8-8-8

Kain had separated from the rest of his friends and went in search of Aiden. He finally found him at one of the more deserted 'shores' of the floating island—most of the floating city kept itself away from the edges, for rather obvious reasons. Aiden was sitting serenely, right in front of the edge, staring out at the sea of clouds.

Before Kain could begin to voice his newest thoughts, Aiden startled him by starting. "Say…you know, the ruins that lie right beneath this sea of clouds….

"Once upon a time, there were hundreds of islands floating in this sky through the power of magic. It was a beautiful and ancient city, home of the first empire that ever ruled this world, some of its first and most powerful mages. It was famed for its magic, its food, its women, all the usual...they called it the Fountain of the World's Culture. The historic capital of the empire of Takiva, and later its surviving remnant, the kingdom of Kanev…the magnificent city of a thousand towers…the Flying Royal City of Orimus.

"But the Obsidian Star, which insinuated itself into that city untold centuries ago, secretly bred a special child into the royal line, a child who bore a strange and mysterious power…the power to deny and accept, to destroy and build, to cut and tie all the powers of magic in this world…and perhaps beyond. It was the same power that brought this world into existence…a godly power that could threaten to destroy the magical power that is the very lifeblood of this magnificent world.

"The Crystal Princess…the wielder of 'Magic Cancel'…."

Kain stared at Aiden in surprise. He had heard some of this before, but never so plainly, never in so much detail, tying so many threads together….

"At the end of the great war, twenty years ago, those once magnificent towers all plummeted from the sky," Aiden continued, "all thanks to a gigantic magical disaster covering a diameter of fifty kilometers…the 'Wide-Range Mana Disappearance Phenomenon'. The kingdom was destroyed, leaving a million refugees and various problems in its wake.

"We—that is to say, really, your father, and his allies—revealed the truth of those dark mages who had engineered the whole war for their own sinister desires, reunited the feuding nations, eliminated the enemy at its source and prevented the destruction of the world. However…we failed to protect a single country, and a single weak little girl…." Aiden chuckled and shook his head. "And we call ourselves heroes."

He stared out a moment longer, still thinking. "But…she may grow into a fine woman yet…. Kid, you and Mai are like the orphans the war left behind. She was our responsibility then…but now, she's yours. How about you try and protect her next time?"

Aiden finally turned his gaze Kain's way, a sad and distant smile on his face. "No, that's not right, is it? Hell, I almost killed you giving you the power you wanted to do it with. This time, you go out there and protect _everyone_."

Unbidden to Kain's mind came the sight of them all…his enslaved students, his contracted disciples, his friends, his brothers-in-arms, those who had braved the magic world for the sake of rescuing him…and Mai. He smiled a grim smile. "Right," he said. "Of course I will. That's why I've come this far."

8-8-8

There was pomp and ceremony as the Festival opened…the flagships of each nation entered, carrying its monarch or representative and its most impressive weaponry and soldiers. Nina, Arika, Yue, Shiho, Erstin and Irina stood at attention, in their Robes, around Sargon as he was delivered to the stage where these leaders gathered to shake hands in symbol of the peace.

Jade had rejoined his monarch, Emperor Peony IX of Grandall, and served as one of his two guards, dressed in even finer attire than he was used to. He seemed as cool and composed and he ever was, but Ami and Kazumi fancied that he seemed more than a little exasperated with the pageantry. Peony himself was remarkable, still youthful-looking although he was supposedly the same age as Jade (a childhood friend, even), with long dark golden-blond hair and heavily-tanned skin, and a very winning smile. He easily shook hands with the more elderly King Kimlaskal of Dalkia, the only monarch of the three nations who had been ruling when the war started twenty-five years ago. Two senators of Halteese, a small but regal-looking woman with short brown hair and glasses and a larger man with wild black hair almost styled like a sun, were part of the procession. And, of course, regally attired and flanked by two of her Knights of the Round, Artoria Pendragon also joined in. There was even the much-less-well-known king of Fiore present…even his own subjects, the mages of Fairy Tail, didn't recognize him until he was introduced.

Riku stared in astonishment at Kaoru as she pointed out all these important individuals, naming the two senators as Yukino Chrysant and Jean-Luc Ricardo, even explaining that Halteese was the nation they had first arrived in before the magical scattering, and that this country was well-known as being settled most often by immigrants from Earth—the population was nearly entirely Terran in origin. She then went on to explain the history of the war twenty-five years ago, as it was understood by the people of Arcanus Myrror, and that it was the reason for the Festival. Some of this, of course, Riku had already learned herself, but….

"I-I'm receiving a lecture in history and geography from Baka Ranger Green Konoe Kaoru!?" she said in astonishment. "That's…more amazing than anything else the magical world has produced yet…."

Kaoru laughed sheepishly. "Well, Artoria- _san_ did like to talk about those things too, and there were a lot of librarians and historians around the castle who liked to lecture about it. I didn't have a lot to do, so I listened. It's actually pretty interesting, when you get right down to it. Maybe when we get back to Earth I'll try studying those kinds of subjects more seriously…."

"No, no, impossible," denied Riku, shaking her hand in a negating manner. "Even though we're here on this trip you still can't find places like France and Germany on a map, now can you?"

"Well excuse me for being an idiot!" Then Kaoru turned and started to run. "More importantly, the fighting tournament is going to start soon! Kain - _kun_ won't be fighting for a while yet, but I still want to see some of the fights!"

"Hey, wait up!" Riku insisted, as she and their two bodyguards started after them.

"Still, it's a good thing we have these VIP tickets from Artoria- _san_ ," Riku remarked as they entered the giant arena and took their seats. "As popular as this is, without them we wouldn't have gotten in!"

8-8-8

"And now, the third battle of the Preliminaries…from the Bounty Hunter Guild, Canis Niger, Twilight Yatsiev! Versus…from the Mage Guild, Fairy Tail, the Salamander, Natsu Dragneel!"

The announcer, Koto, was a fox girl with medium-length red-brown hair, a white blouse and pink mini-skirt, and long black stockings and red boots to go with her fox ears and bushy fox tail. After introducing the fighters, she backed off to allow them to take their places on the stage.

The man opposing Natsu was tall, well-built and muscular, wearing a long, closed coat with a high collar. He was bald, but had a kind of mark across one of his eyes—which eyes had no iris or pupil, but were of a solid, slightly glowing color. He laughed. "Salamander, of Fairy Tail, huh? Even if it's from such a small country, it's got a reputation…but this is the big leagues, kid. You can't survive on reputation alone here…."

"Heh! Bring it on!" Natsu slammed his fists together and let the flame rise around him. "I've been waiting for a good chance like this…going through all that tough training…just to fight some of the toughest guys here! I'm all fired up!"

Koto called the beginning of the match, and the two charged together. Yatsiev began to charge a spell, but Natsu rushed in first, slamming him in the face with his Iron Fist.

Ami and Nodoka sat in the stands, next to the rest of their team and in front of several other members of Fairy Tail. "Natsu- _san_ …he's strong, isn't he?" Ami asked her friend.

"Y-yes!" Nodoka insisted. "T-they all are…Fairy Tail is…very strong…."

Yatsiev blocked Natsu's second strike with a barrier, then repelled him with a blast of magical force. Natsu recovered quickly and began to run around the side of the other man. Yatsiev tracked him slowly. Then he traced another magic circle in the air and began to unleash magical energy toward Natsu.

Natsu dodged the strikes, accelerating and closing. There, with flaming fist and foot, he began to exchange blows with the larger man. Yatsiev blocked the savage strikes and counterattacked, throwing Natsu back enough for him to resume his spells.

"You're tough, for sure…you've literally got the firepower," Yatsiev laughed as he launched another burst of spells Natsu's way. "But that isn't enough, kid. To survive in this world, you have to be more than just a Johnny One-Spell. Behold!" He threw his arms out and slammed them to the ground, and Natsu found himself surrounded by a prison of shifting magical circles. A moment later, they exploded, engulfing him in a cloud of destruction.

And, as Yatsiev rose and smiled in self-congratulations, Natsu suddenly came roaring out of the cloud, one hand blazing. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" His flame-punch hit Yatsiev on the chin, sending him sprawling.

"You're right…I'm not an incredibly versatile mage," Natsu agreed as he continued his assault on the stunned and reeling bounty hunter. "But that's what guilds and _nakama_ are for—picking you up and doing the things you can't do. But in a fight like this, all you can do is rely on your own power to take down the enemy!

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

With his mighty breath weapon, Natsu blew Yatsiev out of the ring and into the barrier that served to protect the crowd from the area-affect spells, and the man slumped to the ground, unmoving.

"And after that last attack, Bounty Hunter Yatsiev is out of the ring and down!" Koto declared, hopping back up onto the stage. "We'll begin counting…one! Two!"

As she continued to count, Natsu raised his arms for the roaring crowd. Nodoka smiled at Ami. "See? Fairy Tail…is the strongest guild ever!"

"…And ten! Yatsiev is down, and Natsu Dragneel advances from the Preliminaries to the true Tournament!"

As they left the arena some ten minutes later, Nodoka and Ami walked alone, being left time for their catching up. "I'm so glad to see you again," Nodoka mentioned. "It's been…fun, adventuring with Fairy Tail, but…all of our friends…."

"I know how it is…you still look down," Ami noted. "Even though you've been reunited with Kain- _sensei_ …."

"A-ah…w-well…yes, but…."

"I know…until we recover Yue, we can't relax." Ami sighed and looked up into the sky as she considered. "We just have to have faith. Yue's strong, and she's been doing better with magic than any of us. If Urahara- _san_ and Kamo- _kun_ are convinced she's all right, we just have to trust them and wait for her."

"Y-yes…I feel…I should trust Urahara- _san_ , but…I want to see Yue now. It's been so long…so much as happened. I can't help but be worried."

" _You_ especially should trust him," Ami advised her friend. "He's already helped you out twice."

Nodoka glanced up in surprise. "Twice…?"

"From the description, he was the man who sent Fairy Tail to rescue you from that man 'Corai' you talked about," Ami explained. "He's been watching you for a long time…maybe on Yue's behalf? Or Kain- _sensei_ 's…well, in any case, she's supposed to be coming here herself soon, if she hasn't already. Perhaps we'll see her at the tournament."

"R-right…."

8-8-8

With a pause in the fighting, Kaoru and Riku gathered with their two escorts at the attached café to catch lunch. "There are lots of strong fighters here," Kaoru remarked as they ate. "It kinda makes me wonder if Kain- _kun_ is gonna be all right…."

"I wouldn't worry too much, Kaoru- _san_ ," Wein advised her kindly. "Kalan Lockeheart actually is a pretty heavy favorite so far…some of that is due to his name, but in their Granicus Summer League both he and his companion 'Kôjirô' were dominant, often fighting teams of two individually and without any rest. I haven't had a chance to see him in action in person yet, but from what I've been able to see in videos and what I've read…he's got a good chance."

"Yeah…" Kaoru sighed, putting her silverware down and looking depressed. "Ah…even though we're a bother to Kain- _kun_ , I want to hurry up and meet with him so that we can apologize…."

"Apologize?" Riku said. "Oh, for…sneaking in, huh? Well…."

"He can't really have come to hate me, could he?" Kaoru asked suddenly.

"What!? No way! This is Kain- _sensei_ we're talking about, after all…he never could hate his students!"

She leaned forward and raised a finger to make a point. "But the problem before that is how to get in contact with Kain- _sensei_. Our efforts last night were no good…then again, it was late. Lots of people, even important ones, want to get in touch with 'Kalan Lockeheart', but Dolnegus- _san_ , who owns his gladiator contract, has kept him pretty well closed off from the media and, of course, any wild fans. That's probably how he wants it, but it's not any easier for us…."

"It'd probably be a lot easier if we could meet some of your friends that are already here," Hans said. "Well, we're sorry we couldn't do anything, but we'll still help out however we can."

He turned to glance at a waitress carrying a pitcher of water. "Ah, miss, can I get a refill, please?"

"Ah! Sure!" Izumi answered cheerfully, hurrying over to the table. Then she stared at Riku and Kaoru. Kaoru and Riku stared at Izumi. Then, with recognition, shouts, cries, and hugs, they fell against each other.

Wein smirked at Hans around the trio. "Ask, and ye shall receive," he said.

8-8-8

Kain enjoyed a 'Kalan _manjuu_ ' while he looked out over the happy, mingling crowds of the Festival. A slight, melancholy smile was on his face as he watched excited children of several different races and loving parents of mixed stock in addition to crowds of people who might very well have been seen on the streets around Mahora. "So this is peace, huh?" he muttered to himself. "The peace my father and his friends protected…isn't it?"

He considered the words he had heard. "Yesterday was so eventful…and after all of that, Aiden was so thoughtful…why was he talking like that?"

He thought long and hard about it. "And especially about Mai. Mai Alusia Hairen Takiva." He gazed out at nothing now. "We heard about that before, of course, but…this is her place, her kingdom of origin. The Crystal Princess, and a descendant of the mages that were responsible for the birth of this world. She is…a human of this world, and not Earth…."

He thought of Mai, of all the experiences they had had together since his arrival…his first exposed magic, their rooming next to each other, adventures in a library, battling a vampire, fighting in Kyoto, arguing and training, touring the Mahora Festival, battling Sakura's forces, enjoying the summer, journeying to Arcanus Myrror….

And now here they were…the 'orphans', the legacy, of that bygone war. He smiled slightly. Perhaps he was slightly arrogant in thinking that this Festival was practically in honor of himself and Mai, but considering what Aiden had said, considering its meaning and its origin, it was nearly true. "No…not just us…Kenjirô and Nodoka, Yue and Delryn, Hikaru, Akari and Kiami, Kagome and Inuyasha, Lina, Hinagiku and Kajirô, Tear and Rin- _san_ and everyone else…yes…I'll protect all of them! It's not just Aiden's wish…it's definitely Father's, too."

And then a dark sensation caught him. The same dread he'd felt in Kyoto. The same horror that gripped his heart at the Gateport. A sinister presence that he'd touched only yesterday.

He turned around slowly, and slowly, through the milling crowds, through a break, he saw that face…that plain, cold face, capped by messy brown hair and lit by unfeeling green eyes. He was flanked by a blond woman and a syrium with blue hair, but Kain paid little attention to the two at his side. The man himself was all that Kain could see.

"Eminus…."

F I N

 _Author's Note: The Festival Underway!_

 _This Festival is both more and less involved than Mahora's. Our party, of course, has largely other concerns, but some are able to stop and enjoy themselves._

 _This is where a lot of the events are brand new, and even the original Negima events I keep or adapt are somewhat out of order. For instance, sending out the martial artist squad was somewhat after this normally, but Kain wanted to get it underway. Also, the composition (even compared to the sort-of-the-same characters I have) is different. Kiami's artifact is an exact duplicate of Kaede's from the original—it's a good and useful_ ninja _tool, so I decided to let her steal that, too. Hikaru's was a simple decision, and as for Akari…I was thrilled when the Tekken guest style of 'Devil Jin' was available in Soul Calibur V, as it finally allowed me to make an Akari character. Of course, since this was 'Devil Jin', it was the main Tekken character with weird Devil Powers like black wings he could sprout and eyebeams he shoots out. So Akari in SCV also has occasional black wings and eyebeams. Um, okay…well, since I am obsessed with things being 'right', I decided long ago that her artifact would be an item that would give her this ability, so I can say, "This character is Akari, with her contract artifact equipped! Yeah!" So I used a piece of equipment I can put on her as well, to make the image better. The Absolution Choker is a very distinct choker._

 _And then there was Hinagiku's revelation. Yûna Akashi, the energetic basketball girl, was the original girl who secretly had magical parents. Takane eventually reveals this secret to her…much later, right before the final battle with the enemy. But I had long ago decided to give this subplot to Hinagiku. After all, her parents disappearing around_ the same time period _, Yukiji being at a prestigious school despite being unfit…used correctly, it just all makes sense (not to mention partially explains her own superhuman capabilities). It's also an amusing irony that Hinagiku, who was always so level-headed she never liked magic and often tried hard to disbelieve it—although I haven't dwelt too much on that character trait here—is actually closer to the magical world than any of the 'normal' girls except Mai and Kagome. So I constructed this backstory, this similarity between these characters…I prepared it all for here. Hinagiku is going to have a bit of trouble adjusting to this idea, but it won't be too bad…._

 _And new troubles are quickly going to distract her. This meeting between Kain and Eminus is important…it was originally important for Negi and Fate, but what I'm doing with it makes it even more so. The last preliminary before the Tournament, which will be Act 13…._

 _Well, let's get to it then! Let's see what shakes out of this…._


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter Seven: Star-Struck, Part Two: Two Tigers Meet

"I wonder if Erika is all right," Hinagiku muttered as she wandered through the crowds next to _chibi-_ Chisame and Mai. "Yesterday was…so eventful…."

"For you as well," Chisame muttered. "Are you okay, _Kaichô_? That was a pretty serious revelation for you as well…heck, it rocked _my_ world…."

"She has a point," Mai chuckled. "It's…not so much different from what I learned after the Festival. And I even had the dreams to work me into it gradually…."

"I'm fine," Hinagiku sighed. "Really…it was a bit of a shock, but it makes far too much sense. Right now it doesn't much matter…even if I'm going to have a talk with _Onee-chan_ after this is all over…."

"Did you already have a talk with Tsukai?" Chisame teased. "Is that why he's not here with you?"

She shot a glare at the little girl. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Wait…isn't that Kain?"

The three glanced up and spotted the red-haired young man. The hood of his white cloak had fallen back, and between that and his bright red hair, it was easy to recognize him. "What about the tournament?" Hinagiku demanded.

"His match in the preliminaries isn't for two days," Chisame explained with a sigh. "Besides, with everything so noisy, the contestants are allowed to go out to eat lunch…."

"No, wait!" Mai insisted. "Something about him is strange…."

8-8-8

Kain stared at the boy across the plaza from him. His lip curled up as Eminus started slowly towards him. "Pakrov…Eminus…"

He subconsciously started to release his power, causing it to whip the wind around him up. "Why are you here!?" he growled menacingly.

Suddenly Hinagiku and Mai alighted next to him, artifacts out and quite on guard. "Hina…Mai!"

"You fiend…" Hinagiku began.

"What are you planning?" Mai finished.

Eminus continued approaching leisurely. The two girls remained behind, watching carefully. Hinagiku and Mai began to tense and assume their ready stances.

"Why, you!" Mai said as Eminus remained silent. "If you come any closer…."

"Stop!" Kain commanded. "Both of you, don't start anything…."

Eminus opened his mouth and actually chuckled slightly, although the laugh didn't touch his eyes. "…Kain- _kun_ is much more composed compared to you, bladeswoman…Princess….

"I would advise you not to start wielding that sword or using magic recklessly…you are wanted criminals, after all. If you cause a disturbance, they _will_ catch you."

"I knew it…" Hinagiku growled. "You are the one that framed us after all, weren't you?" _('At this distance…I might be able to get him…!')_

"The spice of a trip to a foreign world was good exercise, wasn't it? Even so, from there, Katsura Hinagiku…."

Suddenly Eminus was past the pair, right in front of Kain, staring him in the face. "…Scoring a hit on me is impossible, so it would be best if you stopped planning it."

The two girls stared at him in concerned shock, frightened into immobility, wondering which way the die would fall. Kain, barely controlling rage, stared into Eminus' eyes, unblinking, the magic starting to pour off of him.

"You wanna go? Your blood sure is boiling," Eminus murmured. "Ah, it seems my mere presence has provoked you. But you should stop thinking of that, too. If we start here and now, those around us could be caught up in it…by my count, the casualties would probably number a few hundred. So, what are you going to do…? What's your choice?"

Kain kept staring. "You…what the hell are you plotting?" he growled.

"Right now, nothing," Eminus replied. "Nothing violent. You came at us with weapons yesterday, but this is not revenge or anything of the sort. Rather, today I have come with no intention to fight, but to talk. I thought we could meet amicably, and perhaps even make a trade."

"W-what did you say!?" Mai demanded in shock.

"…Do you think that I would believe that coming from you, after all this time?" Kain growled. "After what you've done to my friends and companions? After what you put Erika through!?"

"Who are we?" Eminus demanded softly. "What are our plans? You don't know…you don't know something as basic as that about us. In this kind of situation, to be so hostile towards us is so childish. It's actually quite boring. Don't you think you should at least listen to what I have to say?"

8-8-8

"Keep a distance of at least a kilometer," Kamo told Chisame as he rode her shoulder. "Eminus' attack power can easily strike at least that distance. "From what I'm reading, it seems Eminus actually came to parlay, not fight, but you never know how he could turn things."

Chisame cursed. "All we can do right now is call for help and wait, right? But Tsukimori, Tsukino and Heiro are already off the island, looking for that gate…really, the one I'd like to call is that self-proclaimed superhero, Aiden…."

"Hmm," Kamo muttered. "Aiden's _says_ he doesn't want to get involved…but there's something about this Eminus kid that's bothered me from the beginning. Aiden at least needs to get a good look at him, too. I'll go get him."

"Right. I'll contact Kenjirô and the others! Get going!"

Kamo winked out. Chisame glared back up at the plaza where her _Sensei_ was. _('I can't believe this turn of events. Judging from this situation…maybe we're not as insignificant to them as I first thought…. Just what is their goal?_

 _('…Goal…that's right, we still really don't know what their goal is…Aiden says that they're just an 'inhuman force' intent on taking this world for themselves, but how does that involve all these forces they've gathered? And how does it affect us…?')_

"What!?" Kenjirô cried into his card (Chisame was communicating to him via cards telepathically) as Yukari looked on in surprise. "Are you serious, Chisame- _chan_? Ahh…got it! I'll rush there! Don't do anything foolish, all right?"

"W-what is it, Kenjirô- _kun_?" Yukari demanded as the boy put away his card and turned to go. "I-is everything all right?"

"…No," Kenjirô said with some hesitation. He turned his face back to her with a grim smile. "It seems the enemy general has come out…maybe we should have expected that after yesterday…." He turned back and started off, running at top speed. "Sorry, I need to go! Don't go anywhere, Yukari- _chan_!"

"Ah, K-Kenjirô- _kun_!" She stared after him as he leapt from the balcony to the street below. "E-enemy…?"

8-8-8

Eminus sat at a table that had been prepared by his two aides. A pot of coffee and a pot of tea had been set out with cups and other accoutrements to go along with the repast. Alvaris was there, sitting on Luana's shoulder as she and Fyuria flanked their leader. "Won't you sit down, Kain- _kun_?" Eminus asked softly as he poured his coffee.

Reluctantly, Kain did so. "We're not going to sit," Mai said curtly as he did so.

"That's fine," Fyuria responded. "We're not sitting, either."

"And see? With that, we're on even ground," Eminus continued almost cheerfully.

 _('T-taking hundreds of people hostage like this…')_ Hinagiku thought. _('From what even I've seen… everything within 100 meters being completely destroyed is quite feasible…what a situation we're in….')_

Kain poured some milk into his tea and began to stir it. Eminus clucked reprovingly. "My, my…now you're using milk?"

"What?" Kain demanded hostilely.

"Fragrant, highly-refined, and world-renowned Orimain Tea and you suddenly put milk in it. I guess milk tea is, in the end, milk tea...a childish drink. You'd think you were an Englishman.

"Anyway," he continued, sipping at his own cup, "I'm part of the overwhelming coffee faction, so it doesn't matter to me. Just so you know, I drink seven cups a day."

"Seven cups of that mud?" Kain retorted quietly. "Jynx was a coffee connoisseur as well, but even he didn't usually drink seven cups of the stuff. I'm not sure what I should make of the fact that you share that trait with him…."

"Jynx? You mean Allen Black? I was not aware that he had such refined tastes. A pity, really. Anyway, coffee is certainly better than milk tea…."

"You don't know anything, do you? Black tea isn't coffee, but it's naturally bitter…it needs milk to make it a proper drink."

"What are you saying? Black tea is only good with lemon and ice."

"You destroy black tea with _lemon_? And _ice_? And coffee, too…is your tongue even all right?"

"I'm quite surprised. An American, of all people, is worried about my tongue, with all the stuff your culture consumes…."

Kain finally scowled at Eminus. "You said you wanted to talk, but it only seems you want to insult me at every turn. Are you trying to start a fight?"

"Oh, well, I don't mind if you don't…dragging everyone in…."

The two girls stared in shock at this rather childish exchange. _('W-what's with this?')_ Mai thought. _('This is the first time I've ever seen Kain act this way….')_

Kain set his cup down and stared at Eminus. "You kidnapped Kagome in order to use her power to resurrect monsters…you set a _mazoku_ on my friends…you attacked us as soon as we entered the magical world…you kept Erika imprisoned and fed her poisoned blood for three solid months…you're a survivor of the enemy my father fought, who tried to destroy the world. You've said I don't know you, but despite this 'peaceful' setting and your sweet talk, I know enough to recognize my enemy. So tell me, then, what you can possibly offer to make me change my mind."

Eminus sighed. "Such a shallow understanding of the conversation. Well, to call us 'enemies' like that…it's no more than saying that hollows and Soul Reapers are natural and eternal enemies. You're hostile towards us simply because of the past, histories, stories, and blood. I suppose as 'successor to your father's will', you must be our enemy, if that's really the path you've chosen. But there's more to it than that, isn't there?

"Regardless of your feeling regarding us, you have a larger responsibility, right? Not only the nearly twenty companions you have, but even your other, uninvolved students who stumbled in here…your responsibility is to see them home safely, correct?"

"And what of it? Are you going to try and hinder us?"

Eminus raised a finger. "Ah, that's it entirely…that, right there, is the big misunderstanding we have. Do you recall our meeting at the Gateport? Our fight there was an unfortunate accident. You just happened to be there…and, more importantly, you happened to take notice of us. If you had departed without trouble, there would have been no battle."

"You have some nerve…" Kain began.

"I have no intention of getting in your way," Eminus continued over his comment. "If you want to return safely, all you have to do is ask."

"W-what!?" Mai and Hinagiku demanded in unison, shocked.

"It's just like with your little adventure yesterday. We're not bitter about it. I know it was simply to recover your lost little girl, whom we unfortunately had to keep in custody for these three months. So we allowed you to retrieve her without trouble. You caused no harm, did not set us back any. We simply don't care. And we won't care if you simply don't get in our way. That is the trade: we will allow all of you, now that you have been reunited, to return to your world safely, and we will even escort you there." He pointed at Mai. "In return, simply hand the princess over to us. How about it?"

Mai stared in shock, Hinagiku began to growl. Chisame, listening in using her magic/electronic mice, tensed in realization.

Kain stood and slammed a hand on the table. _"I refuse. How dare you even ask such a thing!?"_

"Come now, it is not a bad trade," Eminus replied. "After all, we could have simply taken her at the Gateport. True, Nagi made some blunders trying to retrieve her over these months, but had we been serious, it would have been a small matter to take her then. Why can't we just conduct a gentlemanly trade? The girl has no relatives, no family, and a fake personality that has developed over the past eight years. She is a troubling person in your world. And, after all, she belonged to us in the first place…she is ours to begin with…."

Kain kicked the table, sending it flying straight into the air and disappearing into the clouds. In the same instant he came rocketing forward, one fist smashing towards Eminus' face. There was an explosion of power.

" _Shut your mouth, Pakrov Eminus_ ," Kain hissed.

Eminus held the hand an inch from his face. His dull smile quirked his lips. "How very fickle, Kain- _kun_ ," he murmured back.

"Mai is _no one_ 's possession," Kain continued. "Not yours, and not _anyone's_. If you utter any filth like that again, I _will_ break you to pieces…."

"So you won't hand the Crystal Princess over," Eminus said calmly. "Well, I figured you would say that."

"T-t-table?" Hinagiku offered, pointing skyward at the incoming fixture.

Kain withdrew from Eminus, raised his finger above his head, and caught the table's single central leg on the tip of it. He then stepped back and set it back down in its original position…not a drop of liquid had spilled, not an object had been upset. Kain actually sat again. "If you wished to propose a trade you knew I wouldn't accept, why'd you even come here?" he demanded, traces of his venom still present.

"I'm not done talking yet. I commend you at least for sitting again…we shall continue our bargain."

8-8-8

"Chisame- _san_!"

Chisame turned as Ami and Nodoka came hurrying up. "Oh, there you are, Miyazaki, Mizuno! That was fast!"

"Well, we happened to be nearby…."

"I see…you didn't happen to have your Fairy Tail guys nearby too, did you? We could probably use their help…."

"Ah, we left them with Natsu- _san_ …to celebrate, while I caught up with Ami…."

"Well, whatever. Maybe we'll get a chance to call them or something. Anyway, here's the deal: he's here, the brown-haired boy, Eminus. Presumably the guy leading our enemies."

"Are Kain- _sensei_ and the others all right, Chisame- _san_?" Nodoka asked almost pleadingly.

"For now, they're fine. Eminus is trying to negotiate or something, so they're just talking." She showed them the video feed on her computer. "But he's damn untrustworthy. He's basically using all the people around them as hostages. It really got tense a moment ago when he asked us to hand over Tokiha, but apparently he's backed down on that point."

"Mai- _san_ …the Crystal Princess…" Ami murmured. "Well, although this is a difficult situation…it could be just the chance we need…."

"Right," Nodoka agreed, seriously.

"W-what!? What are you talking about!?" Chisame yelped. "You don't mean…." The two librarians turned serious gazes her way in response. "Not a chance! He's the enemy leader! It's far too dangerous!"

"Um, we know it's dangerous, Chisame- _san_ …but if we were to pull it off, on the enemy leader, of all people…."

"Stop right there, idiots! We're basically dealing with terrorists here! And not just any terrorists! It's like a group with a nuclear warhead…if anything goes wrong, you'll be killed instantly! You can't do it! You mustn't!"

"Don't worry…I can do it!" Nodoka insisted. "I've experienced a number of battles with Fairy Tail now. I'm not like I was before summer vacation…I'm a Fairy Tail mage myself. I'm prepared for this!"

"No, you don't get it at all, Miyazaki! That's exactly what _Sensei_ 's most afraid of! Oh, just…look, if you die, that's it! This may be a magic world, but it's reality, not some kind of game! There's no extra lives, and no reload! Before we do anything, we should at least wait for Kenjirô to get here…."

"Sorry to interrupt," a soft voice said. The three turned in fear and terror to stare as Kairen approached them.

"But would you like to taste a sample of this reality?" Ryuryu continued, coming in from the other side.

The two held up their cards and called on them. Kairen's hands became covered with clawed metal gloves, and a scythe appeared in Ryuryu's hands.

 _('A battle out of nowhere!?')_

Ami and Nodoka called on their artifacts while Chisame brought her staff into existence.

8-8-8

"Now then, Kain- _kun_ ," Eminus said, returning to his coffee, "really, to refuse to abandon a single insignificant individual to save many…I'm sure even your new friend Aiden Rylack would insist that such an individual as that is unfit to be a leader. If you try to save _everything_ without any sacrifice, you will merely end up losing everything."

"Everything you say is twisted," Kain growled. "Mai is _hardly_ _insignificant._ Or did you create such an 'insignificant' individual!? And besides that…my father _would_ save everything without any sacrifice…!"

"Dear me…your words really are those of a naïve, coddled little boy. Your father, indeed, selfishly sought to save everything, but even someone as blind as you must admit that he failed…look at this ruined city and its lost citizens, only now recovering. And if he could truly save everything, why have you lived without him in your life…?"

"I can't stand anything you're saying here!" Kain barked back. "If you have anything constructive to say, get on with it already!"

"…Very well. I had a 'Plan B' prepared, just in case. The Crystal Princess was once essential to us, but there's no helping it now. We're prepared to move on without her. So we shall give up on her. All we ask is that you turn a blind eye to us; simply agree to not interfere in our plans. That will be sufficient. If you do this, I will grant you all safe passage back to Mahora Academy."

Kain stared in shock. "W-what did you say!?" Mai demanded.

"You mean you never cared about us in the first place!?" Hinagiku shrieked.

"That's what I'm saying, Katsura Hinagiku. But since you seem a little slow, I shall elucidate. Kain- _kun_. As you say, from a certain perspective, our ultimate goal is to bring about the 'destruction' of this world. However, we have reasons for our efforts, and it is sufficient for our purposes now if you, who really know nothing of these affairs, were to simply stand clear of it all."

"In other words…you're demanding I choose between this world and my friends?" Kain said carefully.

"Exactly."

Kain rolled this thought in his head, over and over. _('I can bring everyone back home safely…just as long as I abandon this world!? That's…just…!')_

 _('These are incredible conditions!')_ Hinagiku thought. _('S-something's up with this…Kain-_ sensei _…!_

 _('No, as we think about this…you should probably accept this offer, at least for the moment! There's no guarantee that he'll keep his side of the bargain, but at the very least we can withdraw from this terrible hostage situation! You don't have to mean it…you simply have to accept! If you buy us time, we can get help from Aiden-_ san _, Urahara-_ san _, others….')_

Hinagiku froze, second-guessing herself. _('But…that can't possibly be right…it can't be that easy. They have no reason to come out into the open like this just to offer us these flimsy conditions! But there are magical artifacts or tools that could be used to force a kind of 'verbal commitment'…he has that spirit of contracts, Alvaris, with him, too, and if he's like Kamo-_ kun _, he could probably enforce such a power, but could he twist it to his advantage? But…everything seems intent only on driving Kain-_ sensei _into a corner…._

 _('Either way, he's trying to manipulate Kain-_ sensei _here…we must…!')_

Hinagiku began to speak, but Eminus suddenly put in, "There is no reason to hesitate, Kain- _kun_. This world is of no significance to any of them. Even this one, Tokiha Mai, is not really the Crystal Princess…her current personality is a normal girl of Earth, with no connection to this world. Perhaps, as the son of this world's hero, you might feel some connection to it…but for the rest of your companions, for all your students, wouldn't this world be little more than an illusion or dream to all of them?"

Kain raised his head to stare at Eminus. "What difficulty can there be in choosing reality over dreams and illusions?" Eminus pressed.

8-8-8

Kamo found Aiden in the somewhat surprising company of Tear and Rin, who were discussing strategies privately with the man. "Eminus…you mean that boy of the Obsidian Star is back!?" Tear cried, jumping to her feat. "This is very bad…we had to rescue Sendô- _san_ yesterday, but now…is this revenge!? We should have anticipated…."

"Calm down a little," Kamo instructed her. "Sure, it's bad, but it doesn't look like a fight yet. The kid told Kain he wants to talk, so it hasn't come to blows. I don't think it has much if anything to do with yesterday…if Eminus came here after something, then it's…."

"Mai…right?" Aiden finally put in. He chuckled. "You came all this way to ask my help, huh? Ah…I really shouldn't be sticking my neck out so much at this point in life, but…if Mai's already up there, we probably do need to go…."

"More than that, I think you need to see this Eminus kid," Kamo continued. "He's different compared to the others. Haven't had too many chances to get a look at him, but I don't like the vibe, and so I need a second opinion from somebody who's actually gone toe-to-toe with him…."

"I'm afraid we can't allow that."

The eyes swiveled to take in the newcomer. There were four ladies of varying ages standing there holding staves. Aiden narrowed his eyes at them. "Oh? You little ladies are here to stop us? Who are you supposed to be?"

"Ellis," said the pink-haired elf girl.

"Yayoi," added the robed young priestess.

"Vira-Lorr," declared the onelthes.

"Faina," finished the fourth, a high-elven girl in a blue dress that the White Wings had not yet encountered.

"You must be Aiden Rylack," Ellis continued. "We've come to ask you to politely refrain from interfering with the ongoing negotiations. They are between Eminus- _sama_ and Kain Lockeheart."

"Don't start with that kind of rubbish!" Rin snapped, stepping forward. "We're all part of the same team here, with the same objective—you don't have any right to forbid any of us from interfering. If you're going to try and keep anyone from getting to Kain- _sensei_ , you should at least be honest…say that you're here to stop us from spoiling your plan and be done. Archer." Her guardian spirit materialized next to her. "Let's push our way through and get to Kain- _sensei_ before he makes a foolish mistake!"

Aiden smirked. "I guess that's about the long and short of it, eh? Well," he said, drawing a pistol as the ladies opposing him all set their staves to prepare for combat, "I don't like fighting girls, but if you're determined to stop me from going, I guess it's that much more important that I _do_ put in an appearance…."

8-8-8

The fog exploded out, leaving several blocks of the city blind. The three girls pelted away at top speed.

"Did you get their names?" Ami gasped as they ran, her spear in her hand.

"Y-yes," Nodoka said. "I'm reading their thoughts now…."

"Good, then let's get out of here," Chisame growled. _('Subordinates of Pakrov Eminus…we don't stand a chance against them. I'm worried about Kain-_ sensei _, but we have to focus on our own survival first!')_

A shadow formed in front of them and then it became Kairen once again. She raised her orb and flexed her clawed fingers at them.

"T-that fast!?" burst out Ami.

"You shouldn't underestimate us," Ryuryu murmured as she appeared behind them. "We have been well-apprised of Miyazaki Nodoka's powerful mind-reading ability. The best way to deal with a power like that is to oppose it with an equal, similar power…such as mine."

"Ryuryu- _san_ , Kairen- _san_! Who are you?" Nodoka called back as the three girls attempted to flee a new direction.

She tensed as the words started coming to her. "I-it's no good!" she gasped out. "She can…."

A blast of lightning met them as they charged down the alley, and as they lay sprawled about, coughing and struggling to rise, Ryuryu approached again. "That's right…I am a seer. I was sent specifically because I can foresee your actions just as much as you can foresee mine. If those powers do nothing more than neutralize each other, it leaves it to a battle of strength, and you all are sadly lacking. Well, I should not be quite so rude…you've done well enough to get this far, considering that mere months ago you were ordinary little human girls from the old world with no knowledge of magic."

Kairen appeared next to her again. "Our actions are attracting attention. The military will be gathering soon."

"Yes," Ryuryu murmured. "It would be perfectly fine to allow the military to capture you all…that would put you out of the way just fine. But unfortunately, the mind-reader is just too dangerous to leave here." She raised her scythe. "I shall at least have to take her away…."

"P-please, don't," Ami begged as she struggled to rise. "N-Nodoka, she's…."

"I understand your concern for your friend…but don't worry. This scythe, the Abyssal Gate, does indeed separate the soul from the body, but it is incapable of actually killing. A body shorn of its soul will actually be perfectly preserved, and the soul can be sent to another vessel. In this case, I shall simply send your friend to our prepared paradise, Cosmo Entelecheia, and there she will live in peace and happiness for eternity. In time, when our work is complete, you should be able to join her there, if that is your preference…."

" _Hadô_ 33: _Sôkatsui_." A blast of blue fire came streaking down towards Ryuryu, but Kairen suddenly jumped in front of her, holding up her orb, and the flame was absorbed into it. The next instant, her eyes widening in shock, Ryuryu threw herself back up in front of Kairen and blocked the strike that came from her front, but the force of the blow sent both of the sisters flying.

Ryuryu rose slowly and stared in shock at the figure interposing himself between her and her intended target. Her eyes were wide with perhaps even fright as she took in the black _kimono_ , the white _haori_ , the long black hair. "Y-you're…Kuchiki Byakuya of the _Gotei_ 13!?"

"A cowardly act to command minions to strike while the leader speaks under a flag of truce," Byakuya intoned as the three girls behind him managed to rise, also staring at him in disbelief. "It seems the Obsidian Star has not altered its methods in the slightest."

8-8-8

Kenjirô stopped and tensed as he began to feel the powers unleash themselves within the city. "Has it started already? No, none of those is Eminus…this is all still pretty low-key stuff, but…it has to be them…."

He glanced back and started as Kazumi came hurrying up to him. "H-hey, wait a minute! Kazumi- _san_ , what are you doing!?"

"I heard what you told Yukari- _chan_!" Kazumi retorted bravely. "If they're starting to fight, then I have to come to! Kain - _sensei_ …if the general is here, then Kain- _sensei_ will need all the help he can get!"

"That's right…I know you have your artifact to give you some fighting ability, but this is a bit much," Kenjirô countered. "If you want to help out, you should probably stay here and keep an eye on everyone. We don't know if some of Eminus' subordinates will try to come here…."

"That's right…you don't know. But you guess exceptionally well."

Kenjirô started and turned one way while Kazumi stared the other. Two women with spears were approaching, the raven-haired Elaine and the more redheaded Valeria. "We don't intend to harm noncombatants," Elaine said, not unkindly. "But no one is to interfere with Eminus- _sama_ 's meeting with Kain- _kun_."

"It would be best if you surrendered now," Valeria demanded somewhat more harshly. "We will do what we have to in order to keep you here."

Kenjirô sighed and manifested both his swords while Kazumi called on Tempestor, Lord of Storms, a living whirlwind personified only enough to have visible eyes within the whirlwind and human-like arms attached to the elemental force. "Jeez, Eminus seems to be like Kain's evil twin," he muttered. "He even has his _own_ harem. And here's me and women…."

There was an explosion that suddenly blasted in front of him, closer still to Elaine, causing the girl to leap back. A wide smile on his face, Overcast came strolling into the scene. "Well, long time no see! You're Elaine, right? I hope you don't mind if I join in on the fun…."

8-8-8

The four girls scattered, moving with magical swiftness to surround the group on four sides. Then they planted their staves into the ground simultaneously, causing a magic circle to flare into existence. And then….

Aiden and his companions all stared in shock as the world around them faded, leaving behind a great open sky. A huge fleet of variously-sized square pillars dominated the world around them, along with clouds down below, obscuring any possible ground. The five of them (including Kamo) were still standing on the gazebo plaza, which had apparently been transported with them.

"T-this is…!" Tear began in shock.

"It's not a phantasmagoria or any kind of illusion magic," Archer replied. "This is a true Reality Marble…we have been sealed inside an alternate space."

"Indeed." Their four opponents finally reappeared, each one on a pillar at different 'corners' surrounding their prey. "Our objective here is hardly combat," Vira-Lorr continued. "And we know that even with four of us, although we could contend with the rest, defeating Aiden Rylack is something that is beyond our capabilities. But this tactic of delaying you has completely succeeded. Trapped in here, not even you can…."

Aiden suddenly fired a shot, and a massive blast of energy accompanied it, tearing through Vira-Lorr and reducing the pillar she had been standing on to pieces. It continued crumbling, eventually falling into the void below the clouds.

Vira-Lorr reappeared, floating in the air where she had been before. "Well, that was rather abrupt," she murmured.

"W-what was that?" Tear demanded, slightly aghast at the finality of Aiden's attack.

"A test," Aiden said. "So, those aren't even really you four there—they're projections. This is a pretty impressive subspace world you've created, though…."

"P-please stop resisting," pleaded Yayoi. "Once Eminus- _sama_ has finished dealing with Kain- _san,_ we'll let you out, so don't worry…."

"What do you mean 'finished dealing with'!?" Tear demanded. "We won't let you or Eminus harm him…!"

"Eminus does not intend to harm Kain Lockeheart- _san_ ," Faina protested. "If this goes as planned, no harm will come to him at all…in fact, all of you may be heading home, just like you wanted…."

"Certainly can't trust words like that," Rin growled. "Archer! Can you go to him?"

"Hmm…no," Archer said with a slight smile. "This is certainly an impressive world. Even spirits such as myself cannot leave it. We are well and truly trapped…."

"But it's not perfect," Kamo said, hopping up onto Tear's shoulder. "This kind of seal requires those doing the sealing to be inside with it! So even though those forms are projections, illusions, somewhere in this subspace you've created are the real deal! All we have to do is find you and defeat you, and we'll be out. A smart plan, but with some big flaws, you know…."

Ellis chuckled. "Well, you have a point. But just so you know…we could be hiding anywhere in this world that stretches over ten thousand kilometers…so good luck." And the four of them vanished.

"These girls have spunk," Aiden chuckled. "Attitude, brains, and they're all cute, too. I think I like them."

"Please try to take this seriously, Mr. Rylack!" Tear cried in anguish.

8-8-8

"Nina- _chan_! All of you!"

The six started, looking up from the treats they were enjoying aboard the _Duran_ , Garderobe Academy's flagship. Mary-Katherin hurried over to them. "We've got reports of a commotion of some sort in the northern marketplace! This is the seventeenth incident so far today." MK sighed and continued almost under her breath, "All these unauthorized contests are just causing far too much excitement…."

Shaking the thoughts away, she continued, "The six of you head down and go sort it out. Don't let the ruffians give you a hard time…you don't want to disappoint your _senpai_ and teachers, after all!"

"Understood!" Nina declared, jumping to her feet. She turned back to the other five, who were still eating. "What are you doing!? Didn't you hear!?"

"But Nina- _chan_ , can't we finish our desert…?" Arika queried.

" _We're moving out!_ " Nina insisted, forcefully evicting them all from their repose.

They materialized their Robes and started to fly off and down towards the floating city. "It looks like we're just dealing with some ruffians, but don't let your guard down!" Nina declared. "We're going to do the name of the HiME proud and show why we were chosen for this mission!"

Yue considered the matter in all due seriousness as she flew alongside her friends. _('Our first mission….')_

8-8-8

"If you wish to return to your own world safely, all you have to do is ignore us entirely," Eminus repeated for the benefit of the audience returning from all the scene changes. "Simple enough, don't you think, Kain- _kun_?"

"Simple…?" Kain replied. "Even if you call it a 'dream'…Sakura was 'nothing more than a dream', but she…was far from insignificant, to us or the class or the school. You want me to abandon this world in exchange for my friends' safety…." He was sweating as he mentally wrestled with the implications.

"Yes…and your point? If you consider that, doesn't that same logic dictate that refusing us is simply putting your friends' lives in danger for the sake of this world?"

As Kain tensed again, he continued, "You are a teacher, at least partially recognized as the responsible adult in charge of all these students, who are minors in every sense and concept. As the responsible teacher, as Kain Lockeheart, English Teacher for Mahora Academy Girls' Middle School Class 3-A, there is only one answer you can choose. Those girls, barely teenagers, have the right to live out their school days in peace without getting caught up in some outrageous incident in a world to which they do not even belong. You may speak of tragedies and the fates of these worlds and places, but just because _you_ have a sense of responsibility, does that mean you should take their right to that away? Would you go save an impoverished nation in Africa if it meant putting all your students at such risk? It is the same thing…even if you are the son of a hero, it especially does not mean that _they_ should bear the weight of this world upon their shoulders. Or you, either, really…all of you should just return and live your lives in peace, and stop sacrificing yourselves for people who will never know nor care."

Kain's memories cruelly recalled some points of that subject at that moment….

 _["Kain-_ sensei, _you've got to take the opportunity to spoil yourself every once in a while, or you'll never find happiness," Hinagiku scolded him.]_

 _[Kalan said: "You don't have to chase me. You don't have to find me. All I want is for you to be happy. You should be yourself."]_

 _["Now, you…" Chisame said, "…do you really have to search for your father? Can't you just act like a fool here at this school, just like the rest of 'em? You're just intentionally leaping into danger…."]_

And so many memories of his happy, playing, energetic, youthful class. _('No, this is the only choice…in any other situation, I wouldn't hesitate to make it,')_ Kain thought. _('I-If I just keep my head clear, none of it will matter, but still…because he's saying it, I don't want to, but….')_

"…It looks like your heart is decided," Eminus said. "This is what's best for all of us, after all. For the sake of trust, we should agree to this properly…Alvaris here will draw up a magic circle to make this into an official magical agreement. Just give me the words from your own mouth."

Kain grimaced. "Tell me one thing, at least, then. Why do you want to destroy the world? What are you really after?"

"Is there even any reason for you to know that?" Eminus countered. "Or do you think this is a Bond film of some sort?, and the 'villain' will gleefully reveal all his secrets?"

 _('There's no trusting this. But right now…when a misstep can mean the deaths of all these hostages…and I can't guarantee that I can stop it…I can't refuse him. I'll have to agree…but it's all right…because if nothing else, we have the trump card….')_

"Then, I will swear…from this moment on…I will…."

"Fire-BALL!"

Kain, Eminus, Mai, Hinagiku, Fyuria and Luana all leapt away as the inferno descended upon their table. Kain stared at the destruction, and then up at one who had caused it. "L-Lina!?"

"Jeez, do I _always_ have to arrive dramatically like this!?" Lina demanded from the rooftop where she'd launched her attack. "You're _so_ hopeless, Kain!"

F I N

 _Author's Note: Raging…._

 _I could do a few character introductions, such as two new members of Eminus' harem, but I think I'll refrain for the most part from this point on…most of those we meet from this point forward will be minor characters at best. If I decide some characters are somewhat more significant for us, we'll introduce them at the time they become significant._

 _This is the start of the first major duel between Kain and Eminus. The conversation between Kain and Eminus is largely the same as Negi's and Fate's. In some ways, it's probably aggravating imbling on the hero's part…but Kain's too much of a thinker, and this kind of cold, hard logic does cause his will to waver. Of course, he's smarter than Negi, too, and is thinking strategy even so—he knows all about magical geas spells, but he also recognizes that he is walking around with Miss Anti-Magic, so even if he's forced into a binding contract magic, he can rely on her to cancel it. He'll probably point this out to Lina. But Lina's arrival is a proper spark setting fire to his doubts, anyway, so her arrival is fortuitous._

 _Besides Lina's arrival (I'll hit that and planned arrival #2 next chapter) all the side battles are largely my own creation—and, with all my characters, there are a lot more of them. The primary two were Fate's wench #1 versus Nodoka, Chisame and Haruna, and Fate's wenches #2 and #3 against Jack Rakan and Konoka (and Kamo, for what he's worth). I did adapt those somewhat, with my own characters changing the attacks of the enemy, but even the involved characters have been adjusted. After Shirabe finally chased down and defeated Nodoka & co., it was Kôtarô who arrived to save them. I, however, decided to have Byakuya Kuchiki show up to save them and do a bit of a hero thing to better prepare him for an antagonist rival role in the upcoming tournament._

 _And while I initially figured Kagome and Inuyasha would be fine companions of Aiden for his Rakan part, I changed my mind and decided to address another point I've let slide so far with her (next chapter) and have Tear and Rin be confidants with him at this point. I'll probably go more into this challenge next time, but Tamaki and Kotomi used their artifacts to seal Rakan in a place just like this, and Aiden, as an equally dangerous individual, would need something similar to remove him from action. Overall, this will be kind of similar, more than the rest of the fights, but not totally—unlike Rakan, Aiden is not a super-perverted thug prone to molesting the attacking girls._

 _As usual, we should sign off on the pointless commentary and get back to the action…this is where it's at!_


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter Eight: Star-Struck, Part Three: Worlds Collide

Lina lighted down in front of Kain. Hinagiku, Mai and Kain all stared at her as she slowly rose to her full height. "Lina…" Kain began, and then his head reeled back as Lina slugged him.

"You big idiot!" she cried. "What the hell were you thinking, listening to anything this guy said!? I know you think you've gotta be responsible for everyone and everything, but _come on_." She pointed at Eminus. "You can't listen to anything this guy says."

Suddenly an object in the rubble of the table came flying out and into Lina's waiting hand. "Forget that little Kamo-clone rodent he's got," Lina continued. " _This_ is the real trouble." It was a statue of an eagle, about half-a-foot tall, carrying a set of balances in its beak. "He was planning on binding your oath with _this_ little trinket, a magical item of the highest caliber regarding contracts. Where's Kamo when you need him? He'd have spotted this right off…."

"Well done, Lina- _san_ ," Mai congratulated her. "I was just about to do that myself. This idiot _does_ think too much for his own good sometimes…."

"I-I agree," Hinagiku said. "I-I mean, I also understood the hostage situation and considered our responsibility towards our students, but in this situation…."

Eminus chucked his mirthless laugh as Kain picked himself back up, still in a bit of a stupor over this development. "So you've arrived, Lina Inverse. Don't you think it's dangerous to interfere in this situation? We were offering all your innocent friends a chance of escape…."

"Don't give me that," Lina snapped. "'Abandon this world for your friends', huh? But that's the most cruel lie of all, isn't it? It's not just abandoning this world…if we give up on it, it'll mean the destruction of _both_ worlds.

"That's your real objective—the Obsidian Star, a planet of demonic magical parasites, traveling from world to world devouring them entirely. But this time you're planning on making a single, even greater planet from _both_ worlds, Arcanus Myrror and Earth. That's the whole reason you've come to our world…the entirety of your purpose."

"I-is that true!?" Kain demanded in shock.

 _('Y-yes, it is…')_ Mai thought. Her 'other self' had told her on that snowy mountain, had mentioned it briefly in passing, describing herself, and Mai, in her condition, hadn't really let it sink it. It had been lost with most of the rest of her scattered memories…but Lina's declaration brought the knowledge of what the Obsidian Star was to the forefront of her mind once again.

"Well…not quite correct," Eminus replied. "Although it is only through lacking facts. You don't have the _whole_ story. Nevertheless, it's unfortunate…while it is true that your safety would not be guaranteed even upon Earth once the final ritual is underway, at least you could have lived out the rest of your days as carefree middle schoolers…."

"T-that's enough!" Mai suddenly burst out, rising slightly into the air. "I've tried to be patient and listen this whole time, but it's more than enough now. I'm glad Lina- _san_ got here when she did. Were you really going to give yourself over to their wishes so easily, Kain!? Forget about me and my place with them for a moment…just think about all the people we've met, the people who have helped us over these past few months…all the people who live in this world. Whether it's Earth or Arcanus Myrror that is in danger, if it's threatened, it affects us all just as much! Don't think for a moment that a single one of us would sacrifice this world just to ensure ourselves safely!

"Of course, now that's a moot point. Their plans threaten not just the hostages around us…not just us…not just this world…but everyone and everything we care about. Are we really going to just sit here and let him spout off!?"

Eminus really began to burst out laughing…but still with that inhuman laugh, that expression of mirth that did not touch his eyes, that was more like a puppet mimicking the action in response to the commands of its puppet master. "Well, well…what enthusiastic friends you have. That doll in the Princess' body is especially energetic. It is quite surprising. I can imagine your answer, Kain- _kun_ , but I'm curious how you'll respond to this."

Kain shook his head. Once more the words and admonitions of those around him came to his mind…in particular, much of Alyssa's 'encouragement'. "Well, I never trusted Eminus for a second," he said cheerfully. "But as he says, you three are really very 'energetic', even if none of it was necessary. I never feared his geas for a second, either."

The three stared at him. "What are you talking about!?" Lina burst out. "If you had sworn to never interfere with him while this thing was activated, that would have been it! Game over! He could have done what he wanted, even carried out the technical terms of the contract initiated by that other rodent there, and forever after he could have come at you all he liked and you'd have been powerless to stop him…!"

"That is true…but are you forgetting that I have the ultimate trump card in this case?" Kain pointed at Mai, who grew shocked at the implication and blinked in surprise. "Mai can cancel any contract or magical geas, no matter who puts it on me. Kamo is a spirit of contracts, so he couldn't, but for her, it's child's play, regardless of the situation. The only reason we haven't used it to save Izumi- _san_ and the rest is because at this point it's easier and safer to go through with the tournament and not cause a bigger fuss. But if it could buy us a little time and make the enemy think we were stonewalled…making that contract wouldn't have been a big deal." _('Besides, right now, even without her….')_

"That is true," Eminus said with a smile. "I had thought of that, making this plan less effective than might first be thought. Of course, we had hoped to grab the Crystal Princess before she could use her power, but nonetheless…so sneaky of you, Kain- _kun_ …."

"I see little wrong in double-crossing someone who is double-crossing you," Kain replied with a smirk. "In any case, Eminus, it seems we are at an impasse. We have no intention of capitulating to your wishes…and more than anything, I'm glad Lina showed up to tell me this little tidbit. There will be no negotiation, Eminus."

"Very well, then…then there is little point in continuing."

He raised a hand and a patch of stone spikes shot from the ground and into the group. They dodged aside, but one speared Hinagiku perfectly. "Hina!" Mai cried in shock.

Then the stone pillar fell to pieces and Hinagiku alighted unharmed on the ground, brandishing her sword. She pointed it at Eminus. "Don't take me lightly," she growled, and charged.

Fyuria suddenly moved in to intercept her. "We should say the same, Hinagiku- _san_ ," she hissed. "Sorry. It looks like we're crossing blades once again…."

Kain leapt towards Eminus, who blocked his first attack. "Well, I will say this, Kain- _kun_ ," he said conversationally. "I'm actually glad this crude strategy was a failure. It would be too boring to simply steal his son's free will with such a simple trap. Finally, the two of us are truly enemies, rivals in deciding this world's fate. My wish has been granted."

He then pushed off Kain and jumped into the air. He kept sailing up at high speed, and then stopped and began to chant. The next instant the sky filled with pillars of black stone, which began to fall toward the ground.

"A wide-effect earth element explosion spell!" Lina declared. "That's bad! It'll take out this whole neighborhood!"

Kain leapt into the air after Eminus, powering his True _Kanka_. Luana stepped forward and threw her blades at the distracted Lina…but suddenly two swordsmen appeared and knocked them aside.

"Nice try," Gourry said.

"The Obsidian Star…just what we've been waiting for," Zelgadis added.

Fyuria and Luana fell back as Mai unleashed her attack spells at them. "The battle has begun in earnest," Luana chuckled. "Ah, but things are going to get messy now….'

8-8-8

Eminus left his pillars in the sky to let them fall where they wished, and retreated through the air as Kain pursued him, unleashed his powered strikes. "Ah, this is an interesting technique," Eminus droned while he parried Kain's attacks. "Even higher than the _kanka_ you demonstrated back at Ouritel. But it is disappointing… _kanka_ is nothing more than a kind of 'doping' really. Enhancing your basic abilities this far is good, but if that's all you have, it is nothing to remark upon. It is a pity…you almost buckled to me mentally, and physically you also fail to impress…once more, my hopes have been dashed…."

And then Kain suddenly broke his guard and hit him with a driving elbow, sending him flying off into the air. His face was shocked as he struggled to recover (and finally did so).

"What's that you're talking about, Eminus?" Kain demanded. "Aren't you the one who isn't as impressive as he should be?"

Eminus stared at Kain, a small smile on his case. "Well, perhaps there is some interest in this. It's time for _our_ Festival to begin…."

8-8-8

"Jeez, you look so different like that I almost didn't recognize you," Kagome told him. "It's only been three years or so…of course, you only stayed a few months, and didn't spend a whole lot of time hanging out with me, but…."

"Well, you're rather different yourself," Delryn replied easily. "You've grown so beautiful, _I_ had difficulty recognizing you…."

"Oh, my…you're quite the charmer, aren't you?" Kagome responded rather coquettishly. "So, are you going to be asking me for a kiss now, too?"

Delryn winced under this blow, and Kagome continued, "I _did_ hear you yell at Akari- _san_ last night, and I've already had a chance to talk to Ami about you. I'm not sure I should be glad or not that you're actually a young man who's _interested_ in us girls, but be careful just how many you flirt with…."

"Well, right now I'm a perfectly free man," Delryn protested. "It's not like I have any girl here as a girlfriend or anything…."

"That guy sounds like a real playboy," Shippô murmured to Inuyasha as he rode on the _hanyô_ 's shoulder. "You better be careful, or he might steal Kagome away."

As Inuyasha began to harangue the little demon over his commentary, Kagome continued, "Anyway, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that the son of Aiden Rylack was sent to see Higurashi Eishun, one of his old companions. What was that for? Sword training?" She thought some more. "Come to think of it, Momo first arrived about that same time…how suspicious…."

"Yeah, yeah. I'd rather…stop talking about all of that…." An explosion in the distance suddenly caught their attention. "What's that?"

Inuyasha sniffed, then suddenly began to growl. "This smell…it's familiar…there's a whole bunch of 'em, and most of 'em were all over that base we attacked yesterday…."

"An attack by the Obsidian Star!?" Kagome yelped. "We need to…."

"For now, you need to do nothing," they were informed as Zerva and Winfield stepped out of the shadows. "Your opponents are us."

Inuyasha drew his sword and Delryn likewise called on his. "Oh, that's just fine!" Inuyasha breathed almost excitedly. "It's about time we get into a good fight with you bastards!"

"Inuyasha, we're still in the city…!" Kagome protested.

"Tell that to them," Delryn returned. He sighed. "I swear, I think I've really got to stop hanging around you guys…."

"Here they come!" Shippô yelped.

8-8-8

"I'm fine, Rei, really…you don't have to baby-sit me," Erika protested as she left the offices.

Rei shook her head. "Protecting you was one of the duties assigned to me by Kaya- _sama_. Already I have failed, leaving you in the clutches of the Obsidian Star for so long. While Kain- _sensei_ 's blood has fully recovered your body, I must remain by your side to ensure this does not happen again…."

"Oh…how disappointing. Does that mean I won't get to play a little one-on-one with Erika- _ojô-sama_? That's so selfish of you, Rei- _sama_."

The pair whirled around as the girl began to approach them, both blades in her hands. "Kinue!" Erika shrieked.

"Ah…" Kinue sighed. "To have you so close within my reach all this time, but unable to touch you…it was torture for me, Erika- _ojô-sama_ , really. But now that your friends have helped you escape and you're all better…I can enjoy you to my heart's content!" Readying herself, she charged in.

8-8-8

"Those pillars are coming straight down here!" Hinagiku cried in panic as she struggled against Fyuria. "We've got to do something…."

"Leave it to us!" Lina began to prepare a spell, and Zelgadis and Gourry powered up their swords in preparation to join in. Suddenly they were cut off as a volley of magic arrows came at them from behind.

"Sorry to interrupt," smirked a dark-skinned elven girl with wild red hair. "I'm Lavinia."

"I'm Noah," said her companion, a human girl with short blue hair. "Pleased ta meetcha! Wish the setting was better." Then the pair charged at the sorceress and her friends.

"You handle them, Lina- _san_ … _I'll_ go after the pillars," Mai said, taking to the air. She was the best choice for the endeavor, after all—her _kanka-_ fueled punch not only smashed them to pieces, it caused the magical warheads to outright disappear.

She floated high above and considered the fighters on the ground. Her magical senses, highly-refined from her months of battle in the wilds of Arcanus Myrror, detected more of her friends heading their way. _('They should be fine…I need to go help Kain!')_ She turned and began to accelerate towards the aerial battle raging high above.

Suddenly a blast of energy impacted her, sending her crashing into the ground and sprawling. She bounced back to her feet without hesitating even in the middle of her slide, but she stared up at the four white-clothed females standing in the air above…and the chuckling little boy above them. "Well, well, Mai- _chan_ …you're so predictable right now," Nagi murmured. "Now you've separated yourself, and we didn't have to do anything. Harribel, it's all yours."

The blond woman with the collar of her coat covering her face began to speak. "Apache. Mila Rose. Sun-Sun. Retrieve the Crystal Princess."

Mai braced herself as the trio came charging at her….

8-8-8

Eminus and Kain continued to trade blows. "That last hit…it wasn't just your _kanka_ power," Eminus breathed. "What have you become, Kain- _kun_?"

Kain didn't bother to reply to the talkative elemental. He again broke Eminus' guard and placed the palm of his hand on his stomach. Kain then unleashed a spell, blasting him and sending him flying. He wasn't done, however…he gestured behind him and a faint blackness appeared in the air. Eminus suddenly found his flight slowing, and then he was rocketing back towards Kain, who met his incoming face with another mighty fist.

Eminus went flying but then recovered…however, Kain was already floating in the air directly over his head. The mage released a flurry of magic bolts, which rocketed down towards him, but Eminus dodged by stepping into the air above Kain. The bolts, still moving at astonishing speed, suddenly reversed course and came back up, flying past Kain to engulf Eminus.

Two lines of magical energy then snaked out to grab Eminus, and Kain, wielding a line in each hand, used them to throw him back down onto the ground. Powering magic into his fist, he came rocketing downwards, finally driving that fist into Eminus' abdomen….

But Eminus caught and held the fist and endured the magical force that came with it. "Something has indeed happened to you," Eminus murmured. "Is this the result of your training? Having never needed training myself, I would never suspect it could enhance your abilities in this way…yet that untold increase of yours interests me greatly."

He threw Kain off, and the young man retreated back into the air and away from the vulnerable people on the ground. "I will give you this," Eminus said as leveled his dead stare at Kain. "You are an opponent worth fighting now."

8-8-8

"Well, this is quite a fix," Aiden said cheerfully. "How do we get out of this one?"

"Don't you have any ideas!?" Rin snapped.

Kamo laughed at the serious pair. "You two really do panic a lot. Take it easy…."

"You heard them, didn't you?" Tear replied venomously. "Finding them in this world of theirs is next to impossible!"

"Oh, hardly," Kamo said. "It's pretty easy to find them if you know how to look. Or what to look for. Then again, I shouldn't say that…I have so many ways to detect their presence. Just the fact that they're _ojô-chans_ with contracts is enough." He turned and pointed. "They're west-southwest about 37.35 kilometers."

"Man, that's pretty precise," Aiden commented. "Are you sure?"

"Trust this nose! When it comes to females—I mean, contracts—nobody in either world can sniff them out better than me."

"T-thirty-seven kilometers!?" Rin seethed. "Well, great, but even if you found them, it'll take nearly a half-hour flying at top speed to reach them!"

"That's as fast as you can go?" Kamo asked, disappointed. "That's too bad. What about you, Mr. Archer Spirit?"

"Well, I could probably make it in about ten minutes, maybe five if I pushed it," the spirit admitted.

Kamo turned to Aiden. "Well, I guess it's up to you, then."

Aiden sighed. "I guess I have no choice. Here we go."

He pulled something from his belt and fired a grapnel at a nearby pillar. An explosion cracked it, breaking it in half, and he then reeled in the grapnel, flinging the pillar to the ground near his feet (and scattering the panicked girls). Then he started moving the pillar around until he was satisfied with its position. "Okay…this should do it…."

"W-what are you doing?" Tear demanded.

"Getting us there. Everyone climb on." They nervously did so (Kamo and Archer rather less nervously), and Aiden drew one of his guns. "Everybody hold on real tight!" he insisted. He pointed it at the back of the pillar as he stood at that end, and fired it. The bullet hit the pillar and…ignited it, causing it to fountain forth such a plume of fire that it rocketed out at extreme speed.

Rin and Tear were stunned by the travel; Tear was pressed to her knees by Aiden, who kept her aboard with a hand on the shoulder, and Archer, likewise at ease surfing the traveling pillar, held Rin safely. Kamo was dangling from the back of Aiden's hat, laughing all the way.

"They're coming," Vira-Lorr murmured with a small smile. "Well, well…."

"T-they're coming!?" Ellis shrieked. "W-what do you mean!? _How_!?"

"Incoming…mach 3.2…." Vira-Lorr added.

Aiden and Archer leapt clear with their burdens just before their ride impacted the pillar where the four mages were standing. The destruction scattered all four of them, and they stared in general shock as the dust cleared and their foes stood there (well, Archer and Aiden were standing…Rin and Tear were trying).

"You four seem to be having a good time," Aiden chuckled, observing the recently-totaled table and lounges that adorned the pillar top. "Just a piece of advice…if you've got a nearly-infinite space to hide in, try separating yourself by a few thousand kilometers at least, not just thirty."

"B-but how?" Yayoi said in awe. "We were thirty kilometers away…."

"Well, I followed your scent," Kamo smirked. "And Aiden used some of the ridiculous tricks to get us here. Voilà!"

"Tch." Ellis brandished her staff and the other three followed suit. "If it's come down to this…."

"All right, all right," Kamo said again, waving a paw, and the four observed him curiously. "Really, fighting cute girls like you is a little ridiculous, and we don't want to do it in this place where you make the rules. So, I'll give you one chance to just let us go, before _I_ get nasty."

"Oh?" Vira-Lorr chuckled. "And just what are _you_ going to do, little one?"

"Heh…you know, I'm considered a pervert, but I really hold back," Kamo leered. "I like our girls, after all, so I don't do much more than embarrass them on occasion. But against girls like you…I feel like letting loose and having some fun." He started to make a gesture. "Have you ever heard of the Mississippi Squirrel Revival?" he asked brightly.

"The w-what?" Ellis demanded warily.

Suddenly a horde of Kamo clones appeared…and they charged the four girls en masse.

"Oh my," Aiden murmured, watching the scene as screams rose from the females.

8-8-8

All four of them sat on the ground, panting heavily. "W-we stand defeated," Ellis gasped. "We can't…deal with that…thing….

"But," she continued, glaring at the four above her, "it doesn't matter. We won't release this sealed world, no matter what, and it won't end even if we're knocked unconscious. The only way you can get out is if you kill us…and even if this is Aiden Rylack…can you do that?"

The four stared back at her. Archer sighed. "That is a troublesome condition." He strode forward, materializing one of his swords. "It's a messy job, but it might be necessary for us to leave quickly so we can go to our allies' side. I'll do it…."

"Hold it," Aiden sighed. Archer glanced back at him curiously. "You're right, it's messy, and right now, I'd rather not have any of this on my conscience. So, we'll have to go another route…even if that's expensive, too." He removed a large-caliber handgun from the folds of his robe, a strange device that had a massive barrel and a chamber for only a single bullet directly fed into that barrel.

"A-A Caster!?" Rin gasped in shock. "Those are incredibly rare…!"

"You ain't seen nothing yet," Aiden murmured, and carefully selected a bullet to load in the gun. He pointed it at the girls. They blanched, but didn't have the energy to move. Then Aiden smiled, raised the barrel slightly, and fired. A powerful charge built in the gun as soon as he pulled the trigger, and then finally it discharged, unleashing a sphere of black energy. After traveling slowly for about a dozen feet, it exploded…causing the world around them to shatter and returning them to Orimus. "Subspace-shattering shell number 29," he said with a sigh. "It's damn expensive, but sometimes worth every penny."

Aiden then smiled as he put his Caster away. "In any case, that's that. Let's go get Kain."

8-8-8

"Captain of the _Gotei_ 13…what are you doing here?" Ryuryu murmured to the black-robed man.

"…Why should I answer one such as you? There is nothing you shall receive but my blade."

Ryuryu managed to dance back, blocking the strike again, and as Byakuya pursued her, Kairen suddenly dashed in, slashing with her claws. Byakuya blocked the attacks calmly, but Kairen suddenly caused her orb to come flying down towards the Soul Reaper from above.

Byakuya dodged the strike and stepped behind Kairen, putting a finger to her back. " _Hadô_ 1: _Shô_ [Thrust]." An invisible force threw Kairen away and nearly into a wall before she stepped away from the impact.

"That's enough, _Onee-sama_ ," Ryuryu murmured. "This one is too much for us to handle. We should retreat and regroup." And the pair vanished.

Byakuya stared after them for a moment, then turned and began to walk away without a word. "W-wait!" Nodoka called after him. "K-Kuchiki- _san_! A-are you going to Kain- _sensei_?"

"I am going to observe this remnant of the Obsidian Star, and the progress of Kain Lockeheart, nothing more," Byakuya replied in his cold voice.

"P-please! Take me with you! With your help, I can strike a very important blow against them!" Byakuya looked at her curiously, and she continued, "My artifact allows me to read the minds of those whose name I call…and the Demon's Lullaby allows me to learn the true name of anyone I ask it of if they can hear me! With this, I can learn the plans and motives of one of the most important members of the Obsidian Star!"

The Soul Reaper considered her. "Ridiculous," he said. "A bold plan, but for one such as you, you would be dead in an instant if you entered that battlefield. I have no desire to bring a waif to the battle simple to have her slaughtered."

"I know it's dangerous!" Nodoka insisted. "But this is something only I can do! Something I have to do! Please! You were a companion of Kalan Lockeheart, weren't you? Then you should know what is at stake! I will trust you to protect me!"

Byakuya stared back at her determined and defiant face, coldly calculating.

8-8-8

Mai blocked one attack, countered, repelled and threw the big scantily-clad woman with the massive mane into the smaller woman with heterochromatic eyes. "Dammit, Mila Rose!" the small one yelled after they recovered and separated. "Watch where you're going!"

"You watch it! You're getting in my way, Apache!" Mila Rose responded.

"Excuse me!? Who was the stupid gorilla that let that girl toss her around like a bean bag!?"

"Why, you…!"

"Both of you are just hopeless," Sun-Sun sighed from off to the side. "But, please, kill each other so you'll stop bothering me."

As the pair rounded on Sun-Sun, Mai stared at them in disbelief. _('What's with these three…?')_

"C'mon now," she said wearily, breaking up the fight. "If you're going to get in my way, at least be serious about it. Otherwise, I'm going to just pass through you and go on to Kain."

The three turned to glare at her. "What did you say, bitch?" Apache demanded. "You're acting pretty big, even if you are the so-called 'Crystal Princess'."

"Let's put off this infighting until we deal with _her_ ," Sun-Sun added.

"I hate agreeing with you two," Mila Rose finished. "But that much is obvious!"

Mai put her hands to her chest and began to concentrate, calling on the power beyond the mortal realm….

"Not this time," Nagi insisted, raising a hand and summoning forth power. Mai gasped as a shocking pain went through her, and those worlds just on the edge of her hearing went silent. "Remember, Mai- _chan_ …we created you, we know how to control you. I came prepared this time. So, please just surrender and come back to us…Mai- _hime_."

Mai raised her head and glared at Nagi. "Don't be ridiculous…" she growled.

"Where are you looking!?" Apache roared, charging in, sending Mai flying with a kick.

Mai recovered quickly and caught Sun-Sun's attack. She managed to repel the arrancar, sending her back with a savage strike, but Mila Rose came in behind her, swinging her heavy broadsword. Mai turned to block the attack, but then Apache came at her from the side and sent her flying again. She landed heavily on the ground, but managed to land on her hands and knees.

Before she could recover and rise, all three of the arrancar began to power ceros and unleashed them on her, engulfing her. She finally exploded outward to rise back in the air, but she was singed and burned from the attacks.

"Goodness, she's tough," Sun-Sun murmured. "I heard that our _reiatsu_ was the one power she didn't rule over, but despite that and with Nagi- _san_ sealing her greatest powers with his technique, she still won't stay down."

"Tch. Stuck-up little Princess…." Apache began to charge in. "I'll stop those arrogant eyes of hers for good!"

Suddenly a massive fireball came in from off-camera and engulfed Apache in an even larger explosion. All present heads turned to stare at the source of the fireball. There, standing on the air with a grim smile on her face, her pronged sword smoking, was….

"Momo!" Mai cried in delight.

Momo stepped up next to her friend. "Sorry I'm late," she said cheerfully. "I know it's been a while…even longer for you…."

Before they could further their greetings, a spinning boomerang-like object came hurtling toward them. Momo's sash rose up to block it, and then with a command she blasted it with another fireball.

The smoking object returned to Apache and whirled around her wrist, from whence it had come, the bracelet snapping out to become a winged blade. She was burned and singed worse than Mai, with the sleeve of one side gone, but she glared at the pair with hate-filled eyes. "So…that attack came from your sword, huh? Whatever…that was a neat attack, but two-on-three isn't any better than one-on-three!" She slapped her wrists together, and both bracelets snapped out to become blades.

All three charged in on them, and Momo smiled slightly. "You're right…I can tell that any one of you is at least my equal in sheer force and power—it'd be foolish to jump in alone, you know."

"Dance, _Sode no Shirayuki_ [Sleeve of White Snow]! _Some no Mai…Tsukishiro_ [First Dance: White Moon]!"

The three arrancar just managed to dodge as the ice erupted underneath them and became a pillar of ice that towered into the stratosphere. Mila Rose cursed, trying to break the ice that had covered her arm.

"Growl, _Haineko_ [Ash Cat]!"

A stream of dust or, perhaps, ash suddenly came around into Sun-Sun's path. She tried to avoid it, but it wrapped her up before she could get away, cutting clothing and flesh where it touched.

The three finally withdrew back a pace to glare down at the newcomers as Rukia Kuchiki and Rangiku Matsumoto took their places next to Momo in front of Mai. "Arrancar," Rangiku murmured. "I'd heard that's what Aizen was trying to create twenty years ago. So Nagi Homura managed to complete them?"

As the three were about to go livid again, a cold voice suddenly cut them off, commanding them to back down. Harribel stepped forward. "So many little mice are coming in. We're running out of time…I'll finish this quickly so we can get out of here." She reached up behind her back and hooked a finger into one of the hoops at the end of her odd sword's guard. With this she drew it and took up the blade with the short but very wide angled blade, which lacked a large portion of its center. Raising this weapon, she began to descend up on the foes….

"Sit upon the frosted heavens… _Hyôrinmaru_ [Ice Ring]!"

A dragon of ice suddenly descended upon Harribel, and she dashed aside to avoid it, spoiling her charge. In the next instant a young man suddenly stepped in front of her and brought his sword down, forcing her to block it. "Hitsugaya Tôshirô, captain of the 10th Company of the _Gotei_ 13," the white-haired boy declared.

"So…now even a captain has come against us? Soul Society mobilized more quickly than I thought." She shoved him back and set herself. "I am Tier Harribel. You will be an interesting opponent." She came back at him.

"How dare that boy attack Harribel- _sama_ …!" Apache began, but Sun-Sun grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't worry about them. That boy has provoked Harribel- _sama_ …he'll be dead soon. If we want to aid her, we should finish our own job and capture the Crystal Princess!"

"Tsk. I guess you're right. We'll have to…."

"Oh, capture the Crystal Princess," came a new, mocking voice. "Are you sure you can? When everything's getting so confusing? Just smell that nice smell…."

The three started and glanced up…at the new figure standing above them. Dressed in his own distinctive _haori_ , Shinji Hirako smiled his piano smile down at them while his right hand…controlled his sword. A massive ring adorned the bottom of his _zanpaku-tô_ , and his hand was inside it while it rotated continuously around his grip. A number of smaller holes were inside the sword itself. Even this strange sight, however, didn't prepare them for the scene when they suddenly realized that the world…was upside-down. "Welcome…to the inverted world…."

"Soul Society in force," Nagi cursed. "What terrible timing…." He noted with displeasure the arriving armada, as several more white-and-black robed Soul Reapers appeared in the air around them. "This is enough, Harribel. We can't continue like this. We'll have to retreat." And again the light of negación came down to encapsulate the arrancar, and lifted them into the sky and out of sight.

Mai stared after them, then looked around at the assembled host. "All of you…what are you…?"

"Soul Society has sent aid to Kain Lockeheart in order to fight the Obsidian Star," Rukia declared with a smile. "We're here to help, Mai- _chan_."

Momo glanced over at a distant scene of flashes of lights. "…Is that Kain- _sensei_ fighting over there? That seems…intense…so much has happened while I've been away." She smiled back at her friend. "Well, Mai, shall we go to him now?"

Kain went hurtling down into the river, smashing hard. Eminus was immediately on him, creating a huge mass of rock pillars that engulfed him, crushing him. He exploded out of them and danced away, then came to rest, staring at his foe, who touched down calmly. His magical sight could see the protection that had been blocking the greater part of his damage. _('I think overall I've got the advantage now…he's not really holding back,')_ Kain thought. _('In speed and power, at least…but that mandala-like barrier he's using is nullifying pretty much all my attacks. It's not a normal kind of magic, that's for sure—they really are 'alien' mages, I suppose you could say. If I could just get a grasp on it….')_

"You're hesitating now," Eminus remarked, approaching slowly. "Has my defense disturbed you? Truth be told, your own resistance to damage is as impressive as mine. I've seriously been trying to kill you, you know, but you hardly look the worse for wear…and I thought that special _kanka_ of yours was supposed to be detrimental to your health, but you don't seem that badly off. We might be somewhat deadlocked."

He suddenly charged in again. "Well, shall we keep at it until we find the answer, Kain- _kun_?"

They traded their blows, then Eminus took a small step back to unleash another spell. Kain threw a hand down, negating it even as it began to form, then threw his other hand forward, and a stream of chains grabbed Eminus, throttling him to the ground before fading. Kain then threw both hands up, snapping his fingers, and a huge bolt of lightning carried Eminus into the sky. Another gesture, and gravity again took hold of him, bringing him back to the ground with force.

Kain leapt at the still figure, but Eminus snapped out a command, and shards of rock again rose to intercept him, sending him flying back, and Eminus rose to meet him.

"Lovely…very nice, Kain- _kun_ …that's what I'm looking for…that's how his son should be!"

Eminus gathered a temporary advantage from the exchange and sent Kain flying into the ground, then followed immediately with a stone spear that lanced his midsection. Kain gasped in pain, but he rolled quickly away and came to his feet as Eminus touched down. "C'mon, Kain- _kun_ …that can't be all…."

Suddenly two figures appeared behind Eminus. Kain stared in shock as Nodoka, with Byakuya's hand on her shoulder, pointed the finger adornment at Eminus. "What is your name!?" she demanded…perhaps more dramatically and loudly than she needed.

"…You're…!" Eminus began.

Byakuya offered Eminus the smallest contemptuous look, then he and Nodoka vanished even as Eminus sent a flurry of stone their way. Grimacing, he immediately began to sink into the ground as if it had become a liquid.

"Wait!" Kain yelled, rushing in, but Eminus was gone.

8-8-8

Hinagiku cut through another blast of Luana's fire with Shirozakura. She chanted as she raised the blade to match Fyuria and then plunged it into the ground, created a pulse of energy around her that repelled both of the girls. "She fights well, doesn't she?" Luana remarked.

"If you're going to smile like that, try to be a bit more serious!" Fyuria cursed.

Lavinia and Noah withdrew from the three they battled, panting. "We just don't seem to have any advantage here," Noah remarked.

"We're just delaying them for now…they have far more forces than we originally planned on," Lavinia answered back. "Well, let's try one more go-round…."

Hinagiku dodged back from one more strike, but then realized she had stepped into a magical landmine. "Finally," Luana sighed. "See? I've been serious…preparing."

The electrical cage rose up to entrap her…and then it suddenly faded, blown away by a light breeze….

"Sorry, Hinagiku- _san_ ," Kajirô apologized as he came walking up. "I know, I need to work on getting here _before_ the nick-of-time stuff…."

"I'll take what I can get," Hinagiku growled but with a small smile. "Let's finish this already!"

Luana sighed regretfully.

8-8-8

Delryn charged in, dodging around Winfield's shots. Winfield dodged the sword strikes, trying to sight his gun on Delryn, but he just couldn't keep up with that speed. Finally he evaded one strike by stepping high into the air and fired a powered shot straight down, but Delryn moved before this shot, too, could connect.

Zerva was quite put off to find his fire spells quite ineffective against the red-robed Inuyasha, and he couldn't stand up to the _hanyô_ 's strikes. He fell back, trying what spells he could, but every time he thought he had an advantage, Kagome's light-infused arrow would come streaking in, cutting through his spells.

And he knew it was time to call off the battle when those cubes started raining down on him. He dodged both the green and blue attempts to entrap and slam him, and stared at the two young _kekkaishi_ as they joined the battle. "This is the end for now, Winfield," Zerva snapped. "We've done all we can here."

"You won't get any argument from me," Winfield muttered, and with a gust of wind, the two of them were gone.

8-8-8

Elaine dueled Overcast while Kenjirô half-heartedly fought back Valeria, with Kazumi supporting him with Tempestor.

Kenjirô, of course, was having a hard time fighting a girl, and so Tempestor's lightning bolts and wind storms which he offered from the rear helped to keep them in a stalemate…much to Valeria's displeasure.

"This is no way to fight at all!" the woman declared hotly. "Why don't you fight for real instead of hiding behind that little breeze monster!?"

"Sorry," Kenjirô sighed. "I just don't fight women. It's not a part of me, you see…."

"Don't mock me, you cur!"

"Not relying on your amulets this time?" Elaine murmured as Overcast slashed at her with blades he had conjured, occasionally throwing out elemental spells, particularly lightning.

"I'm a pretty accomplished mage," Overcast replied amiably. "You use too many of the same tricks too often, and people might get used to your tricks."

Suddenly he came dashing in at speed, ducking under a thrust and planting a fist into her stomach, sending her flying back and into a wall, slamming hard. "Of course, I also have those as a nice trump card," he added, letting one bracelet slide from his sleeve to the top of his wrist.

Elaine rose swiftly and twirled her spear. "Very well, then…I shall have to use mine as well." She suddenly thrust her spear forward. "Ruin Thrust!"

A massive funnel of wind rose from Elaine and began to bore into Overcast, who blocked it with his own magic. The two forces strained, but Overcast began to be forced back. Then, suddenly, magical power began to rise from him, pushing against it, and he began to glow with a nimbus of crackling energy. Elaine stared as the sky began to grow dark with thunderous clouds rushing in, the energy in the atmosphere only feeding Overcast's power.

He shoved his hands forward and the energy came out in a wave, snuffing Elaine's attack and blasting her back once again, this time dropping her to her knees. Cursing, Valeria withdrew from her fight and rushed to Elaine.

"I guess we're done for now," Elaine murmured, and Valeria, fuming but agreeing, cast a spell, and they popped out.

Overcast sighed and collapsed to his knees as his companions came at him. "Whew!" he said with a small smile. "That one still takes too much out of me…."

8-8-8

Byakuya finally stopped his torrent of _shunpo_ and settled upon the ground far from the fighting. "Did you get what you require?" he demanded.

"Y-yes! With this, I have his real name…."

Her little treasure inscribed it into the air for the two of them to read…'The Remnant'.

"That boy…considering his appearance, that name does not bode well," Byakuya murmured. "I should return…."

"Please, take me back as well! I can read his thoughts now if I'm close enough…."

"It seems you really are a rather dangerous entity," Eminus murmured from behind Byakuya.

" _Bakudô_ 81: _Dankû_ ," intoned Byakuya immediately, without turning around. Eminus launched a spell from two extended fingers, but it blasted uselessly against Byakuya's shield. "I commend you for your skill in following me," he continued, turning around. "You truly bear the name of Eminus, even if you are incomplete…."

"R-Remnant- _san_!" Nodoka insisted, calling on her meager enhancements and retreating, snapping her book open. "What is your objective!?"

As the words began to flow across her pages, Eminus was suddenly stepping past Byakuya, his hand in Nodoka's face. "Eternal Petrification," he murmured, and there was an explosion….

Nodoka fell to her rump, staring up in shock and fear as Byakuya was once again standing between her and the fiend that pursued her. Byakuya's left arm was raised, and was now rigid stone. "K-Kuchiki- _san_!" Nodoka breathed in shock.

Eminus, centered on his target, stepped to Nodoka's other side and began to prepare again to send her to stone….

Then Kain crashed down between them, sending Eminus flying. Nodoka bounced up slightly, but Kain caught her in his arms expertly. "Are you okay, Nodoka?" he murmured softly.

Nodoka started and stared up at her hero. "Y-yes…."

"Can you stand?"

"Y…." Nodoka gulped and put on her determined face. "Yes, I can, _Sensei_."

She did so easily, flushing slightly from the closeness of the encounter as Kain stood protectively in front of her.

"I was expecting you to use teleportation magic to follow me, and I was preparing for that," Eminus remarked. "And you didn't…and still caught up to me. You do continue to impress, Kain- _kun_ …."

"That doesn't matter, Eminus. I won't let you lay a finger on Nodoka!"

Eminus smiled. "Well, then, shall we continue…Kain- _kun_?"

He dodged aside as Mai suddenly came screaming down on him. His thought of a counterattack was interrupted by the black swordswomen who came down with her.

"Mai…Momo!?" Kain cried in shock and delight.

The other Soul Reapers began to fill the sky around them, and others of Kain's companions were arriving as well, including even Kisuke and Yoruichi.

Aiden finally touched down in front of Mai. "Well…what a party! Why didn't I get an invite?"

Then his face hardened as he stared at Eminus. "Wait…you're…."

"I see…the mightiest mercenary mage in the world, a combined force of the _Gotei_ 13, the Crystal Princess, and the rapidly maturing son a hero…even I am at a severe disadvantage here…."

8-8-8

Kinue danced back, laughing. "This isn't fair! Two of you at once? Am I supposed to be able to handle this?

"Still…" she murmured, dancing under Rei's attack and sending her sprawling with a kick, "the _ojô-sama_ is so impressive on her own! So this is your power from feeding on the blood of your teacher…?"

Erika grabbed Kinue's arm as she swung her short sword, then head-butted her and kicked her away. Kinue gasped and then laughed as she recovered.

She was then behind Erika again, swinging her weapons on her…but suddenly Rei intercepted her, again forcing her away.

As she prepared to rush in again, she was suddenly brought up short by a mental command. _('Kinue, withdraw. Your playtime is over.')_

"Aw, already?" Kinue sighed. "Oh well," she said with a smile as she drew a talisman and began to fade away. "That was enough for now…now that I can see you anytime, it just whets my appetite for the grand finale…."

Rei and Erika watched her leave. Before Erika could say anything, Rei turned to her and said, "You see, Erika- _sama_? I should remain with you whenever possible for situations like this."

8-8-8

"Well, Kain- _kun_ …we'll stop here for today," Eminus declared as he began to sink into the ground. "I'm looking forward to next time…."

"Eminus, wai…!" Kain began.

"Your hands, kid, not your mouth!" Aiden added, firing a powerful shot from his gun.

But Eminus vanished into his puddle before the shot hit.

"Damn…he got away…" Aiden muttered.

Kain sighed as he let his power fade away. "Thank you…everyone…." He turned his surprised gaze to Byakuya. "K-Kuchiki- _san_ …your arm…."

Byakuya grunted negligently and snapped his arm out, shattering the stone shell away from his arm and leaving no lasting harm. "It is nothing. That doll's attack was intended for living flesh. It means nothing to a captain of the Gotei 13." He turned and started away.

"T-thank you…for protecting Nodoka…."

"It was a trivial matter. I was simply interested in how the girl would accomplish her desires."

"Hey, Kuchiki!" declared Shunsui Kyôraku, appearing on the ground behind him. "Where are you heading?"

"I have my previous objective here to accomplish," Byakuya declared. "I shall join the task force after this is completed." And then he vanished.

"Hoo, boy…he is such a moody one," Shunsui chuckled.

Kain tried to get his thoughts in order as he stared out at all the figures now surrounding him….

"Ah, Momo…!" he said with pleasure as the girl approached, smiling. "Thank goodness you're all right…and thank you for your timely arrival…."

Momo smiled at him. "It's nothing…it's good to see you again, too! I hear things have been busy for you…."

Nodoka noticed her book lying on the ground. _('My artifact…it was turned to stone by that attack that Kuchiki-_ san _blocked….')_ She bent over and picked it up. _('But…it seems it retained everything that was written when it happened….')_

Kain suddenly took notice of her again and turned her way. "Nodoka…" he began.

"Okay guys, this is a wonderful gathering, but it's a bit much," Yoruichi smirked, suddenly pushing forward. "The authorities are on their way…you probably don't want to become involved with them right now…."

"Ah, that's definitely true," Shinji remarked. "Well, we're not wanted criminals, but there could be all kinds of fuss if they think an army of officer-class _hinigami_ are running amuck…."

Kain stared at him intently for a moment. "You're… _hinigami_ of the Gotei 13?"

"That's right," Shunsui said, fingering his fat's brim. "We've been sent to aid Kain Lockeheart, the son of Kalan Lockeheart, in his struggle against the Obsidian Star. We'd love to explain more, but as Yoruichi- _san_ says, it's probably a good time to get scarce…."

Kain nodded. "Everyone, split up and scatter! Those who cannot move quickly, make sure you're paired with someone who can! We'll rendezvous back at the place we already discussed. Every member of the White Wings, pair with a _hinigami_ so that you can guide them to that place! Go!"

"He really can command like him," Rukia smirked to herself, and then the group made their hasty retreats.

8-8-8

"So many disturbances!" Nina growled in frustration. "It's like some kind of war out here! What's going on!?"

"They say the fighting has culminated at the river…there seem to be a lot of fighters involved!" Irina called, a hand to her ear as she used it to take in the breaking news. "We're close now…we should…."

She fell silent in shock as the figure appeared behind Yue. Yue felt the sudden intruder as well, and immediately turned around, lashing out with her staff….

 _('What's this…? There shouldn't have been anyone here…! How could my senses have failed to detect these powers…?')_

Kain back-flipped over the attacking staff and landed on it, much to Yue's shock. Kain had a fist raised to retaliate against his assailant, but upon seeing her, his eyes also widened in shock. "Y-Yue!? Yue, is that you!?"

Yue stared back, almost trembling. "W-who are you…?" she whispered, bringing Kain up short.

Yue's team was spread over this airspace, all scanning for the signs of the intruders, but they all clearly saw this intruder appear and witnessed his incredible mid-air acrobatics. And, to varying degrees, they recognized him….

 _('That face…that hair…that cloak…')_ Shiho thought.

 _('…He seems young, but…!')_ Nina continued.

Irina panicked. "T-that's the SS-Class criminal that destroyed the Gateport, the wanted man, Randis Helam!"

"W-what!?" Arika shrieked, the slowest on the uptake. "That is…!? Get away from Yue- _chan_!"

 _('Yue-_ chan _…? Is this her, or…some coincidence, like Sakura and Momo…? No time to think…!')_

"G-get away from here, quickly!" Yue hissed to Kain.

"What?"

"Attack me and knock me out!"

Kain was taken aback by the request. "But…!"

"My Robe will protect me from any fall…if my comrades even let me fall. It's your best chance! _Now_!"

"Sorry," he breathed, blasting Yue with a shock of lightning.

"Why, you…!" Arika screamed in rage. Kain jumped off Yue's staff as she began to fall, teleported a short distance away, 'stepped' even further, and then began to race off at high speed.

Arika swept in and caught the falling girl. "Yue- _chan_!" She shot a greatly angered glare Kain's way. "You…!"

"Arika, take Yue to safety," Nina snapped. "Make sure she gets the help she needs! Everyone else, follow me! We'll catch the criminal!"

The four remaining HiME began to take off after Kain, but, as Erstin observed, "T-this has to be pointless…he's so fast…!"

 _('Tch…and I'm not even sure I want to catch him. But if we don't at least put up the effort…')_ Nina thought. _('Hmph. Yue allowed him to escape…which also means….')_

A short time later, Kain was gone from sight, wondering upon the coincidental nature of that encounter….

F I N

 _Author's Note: Grand Battle Finale_

 _So the first major Kain-Eminus clash comes to its unresolved conclusion. In Negi's version, although he could stand up to Fate, he was still noticeably behind him. My hero is already a lot closer…we'll see how this rivalry shapes up in the future._

 _As mentioned, Fate has a few girls of his own that started showing up here to battle Negi's party. I used them as the basis for all my Agarest ladies, with much of the same origin types—these girls were among many that the big villain Fate Averencus found, orphaned and some close to death, while he traveled about the magical world after the defeat of Nagi Springfield ten years ago. Many he sent off to good schools, but the most dedicated refused to be parted and became his Pactio Partners. They make a good clash with Negi's girls, and will even more in my story, where they will be the major rivals of many of the girls as they battle. Most of them were cute and interesting, but like some of the others, I felt more inclined to make my own (or, steal my own) villains for this part…I have mixed feelings about them all in these situations._

 _In the original, Asuna interrupted Negi's attempted agreement to Fate's plan and ranted much like Mai did, only more so…Mai only put in her 2 cents to make her mark, but I long ago decided to have Lina finally return at this point, and have her start unveiling some of the secrets she's picked up from Xellos._

 _More importantly, the arrival of Momo was big here. As mentioned before, Momo usually takes the place of Setsuna in most elements and arcs of the story, but since the Arcanus Myrror arc started, she returned to her roots and hasn't been around. There were only Anya and Yue missing at this point, and so nobody major showed up in the middle of the fight dramatically, but I had these two. Momo's best place was interrupting one of the plot twists that drove me nuts through the latter part of the Magic World Arc—Asuna was ambushed by a pair of Fate's girls and his number one girl, Shiori, kissed Asuna to steal her identity so that she could be kidnapped without raising suspicion. This super power that convinced even Shiori she was Asuna worked so well and zonked Asuna as well…even though she's supposed to be so anti-magic. Convenience…besides which, I already had Erika suffering for three months. The Obsidian Star isn't getting this Victory Card here…Momo shows up to save Mai from the equivalent kidnapping (without any switcheroo, at least apparently). And the rest of the Gotei 13 show up as well! Hooray!_

 _Nodoka made an attempt on Fate just as she did here on Eminus, and I'm going to follow that somewhat closely. Fate's real name was 'Tertium', Latin for '3_ _rd_ _'—even for the 'Mage of the Beginning', the 'Lifemaker', the Archmage who created the magic world of Negima, Latin is the primary and only magic language. Fate was just that, the third Averencus, and chose the name Fate himself. I thought about trying to find a number name for him to use as an alias/real name, or something, but I kind of shot myself in the foot before—the 'Eminus' in the Kalan flashback gave himself a specific name, so that suggests a name like Pakrov Eminus should be true, not self-chosen. I did other things too to hurt myself, but won't go into that here. I thought that I could try and figure out his 'number' and find another language to use that as his 'true name', but didn't really feel like it—most would not really work, sound weird, or be strange, and the best choice, Greek, I really didn't feel like looking up. Also, there has to be something different, special about this Eminus. That's one of my other mess-ups…Fate was also referred to as Fate by Negi, and the name Averencus rarely comes up, so initially Rakan only knows that this 'Fate' is a powerful foe Negi has to defeat. Then, here at this scene, he finally sees him and recognizes him as an 'Averencus' and thinks, 'Oh, crap'. But since Eminus is the cool name I've always used, and the Eminus(es?) are supposed to be the same 'family' of these elemental creations, Aiden should have recognized it right off. Recognizing the threat of this new character will be part of the reason the master trainer decides to start talking about the past saga, which is coming up (probably in a 'Side Story'-like format). So I had to do my usual mental acrobatics to fix all this later (going way back and retconning everything about him to his first name is tough, and feels really cheap). Luckily, about this point I was rereading Fate's past in the Negima final battle arc, which allowed me to rework out Eminus' past and why this particular one is different…and significant. But no spoilers here!_

 _In the original, two girls were deadlocking Rakan with the subspace. These poor little girls were molested horribly by the super-pervert Rakan (and near-equal pervert Kamo), with Rakan even stealing the catgirl Kotomi's panties (and the dragon-girl Tamaki was already going commando, a weird_ ecchi _obsession of Akamatsu-_ sensei _'s, especially for girls in_ MINISKIRTS _). When he used his game-breaking powers to throw his sword and ride it to the distant girls in the subspace (similar to Aiden's pillar-surfing), he then overcame the girls simply by flipping their skirts continuously, paralyzing them every time in their desperation to preserve their 'dignity' (what little they had left) and exhausting them. They, however, also stubbornly refused to release Rakan, and so he simply used his unbelievable spirit to break their world with a shout. Aiden, of course, much more logically would just use a gun._

 _My Kamo's attack of 'Mississippi Squirrel Revival' should be self-explanatory, and I had it as the attack to defeat them to 1) let Kamo do something, 2) remind people that he, too, is a pervert, 3) nevertheless show that he does care for the girls, never going this far against them and 4) pay homage to that stupid perverted battle. It is the best way for those not willing to fight girls like these to defeat them…or at least_ a _way._

 _And finally the meeting of fate with Yue. Quite similar to the original, but there Yue's much-less-cool-silly-stupid friends of Ariadne freak out over the ten-year-old super criminal, saying they'll avenge her and all that. I really think the 'shock her into submission' part isn't quite necessary, since Negi should have (and Kain could have and did) been able to easily evade all of them regardless, but in this case Kain probably realized that Yue's actions could become unfairly suspect if he just allowed her to stay there dumbfounded and not fighting him—shocking her into mild submission eliminates her, one of her friends (at least) and clears her of any supposed suspicion that might arise. Of course, Nina and the rest are smarter, already seem to have figured out a lot of this, but Kain doesn't know anything about them…._

 _But this Act is almost over. One final chapter will prepare things for the next Side Stories (or, rather, Aiden's Story), and then Act 13 and the tournament!_

 _Okay! Let's go! We have a lot of emotional things to still get through…._


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Chapter Nine: Looming Horizon

Kain settled down in front of the Urahara Shoten. He looked up at it in surprise for a moment before thinking about it logically. Yes, it did seem to far too small to house the number of visitors that Kisuke was likely expecting, but it's not as if he didn't have any experience with extra-dimensional spaces….

He entered the shop carefully and looked around. It seemed like one of any number of Japanese-style 'mom-and-pop' stores, this one focusing on candy, medicines and other such consumables. There was only one person present—Nodoka, who seemed to have been lounging around nervously. She turned as Kain entered, and, eyes wide, came running over to him. "K-Kain- _sensei_ …thank goodness, you're all right…."

"I should be saying that to you," Kain retorted sternly, bringing the girl up short. "Why did you do something so reckless? You were up against—"

"E-eh! I'm sorry!" Nodoka declared, casting her head down penitently.

Kain softened considerably. "…I'm glad you're safe, though, honestly," he said. As Nodoka raised her head in surprise, he continued, "It was starting to turn against me…if you two hadn't shown up when it did, I might have been in danger myself. I must give you my thanks."

" _Sensei_ …" Nodoka murmured, starting to blush from the attention.

Both paused for just a moment, Kain wondering if he should mention what he had just seen in the sky above, and Nodoka, of course, wondering if she should say anything at all, when a door at the back suddenly burst open, startling the two teens. "Oh, here you are!" burst out a huge man with glasses, short braided dreadlocks or perhaps cornrows, a thick mustache and a blue apron over his worker's clothing. "Urahara- _san_ has been expecting you, Kain Lockeheart- _dono_. Everyone is waiting for you down below."

"Ah…thank you…" Kain replied, turning away from Nodoka to the man rather carefully, sizing him up.

"Excuse my manners. I am Tessai, the boss' assistant," the huge man elucidated. "Now that we've been introduced, if you would be so good as to follow me…."

He turned around and started through the doorframe. After turning to quirk a small smile at Nodoka, Kain followed, and Nodoka brought up the rear.

8-8-8

'Everyone' indeed, or close to it, was waiting down below. The stairs opened into a remarkably large chamber filled with couches and tables and chairs, with plenty of space for everyone to lounge about or stand around casually. Some had drinks or food that they were indulging in…a counter with shelves and cabinets behind it near one corner seemed to be the source of these. Someone seemed to have gotten hold of Fairy Tail and others, as the usual four (five including Happy) and Jade, all of whom had missed the recent fighting, were already present as well. Those off searching for the missing Gateport, however, were not.

Momo seemed to be making rounds, greeting all the members of the White Wings that had not seen her in so long…and a few others besides. Kain arrived just in time to witness an interesting scene….

"Ah, Del- _chan_!" Momo greeted the young swordsman. "I thought I saw you in that group before…what on earth are you doing here?"

"I'm just an innocent bystander caught up in it all," he declared. "I came for the Memorial Tournament, and just happened to run into some of your…classmates, I guess, while I was out training for it."

Momo giggled. "Really? Wow, you've really grown up, Del- _chan_! You're looking more like your father every day…I'm not sure if that's a bad or a good thing…."

"Yeah…me neither," Delryn muttered in reply.

"You…know Delryn- _san,_ Momo- _san_?" Ami asked in surprise.

"Well, of course!" Momo declared. "Aiden asked me to train Del- _chan_ in swordsmanship once he became a Soul Blade, since we're the closest people he knew to Soul Blades. That…was the original reason I was assigned to Kyoto on Earth, of course…."

"And you've been there pretty much all this time?" Delryn smirked. "Well, what an interesting thing. You haven't changed at all, of course…it looks like being a _hinigami_ is the perfect way to stay young and beautiful forever…."

Momo glanced askew at Delryn for a moment, a small smile on her face, and then turned back to Aiden sitting across the way. "He really does take after you, doesn't he?" she called to the man.

Delryn shook his head. "Why does everyone _say_ that?" he demanded disgustedly.

"Well, try to think of it as a complement," Kain said, chuckling as he approached. "I've been hearing that a lot, and a lot of 'he's nothing like him', all at the same time, and that kind of drives me crazy." He turned to Momo. "Momo…we're glad you're back, too, we were really worried about you. Now," he continued, turning to take in the Soul Reapers, "why don't you introduce me to all of your _hinigami_ friends?"

Momo began to do so, and each of the black(and sometimes white)-robed Soul Reapers approached to introduce themselves. Shunsui Kyôraku began, and then Renji Abarai, Rangiku Matsumoto, and Jûshirô Ukitake followed.

"This is Shirô- _chan_!" Momo put in when the youthful-looking white-haired Soul Reaper failed to come forward in a timely manner.

Tôshirô glared at Momo a moment, then finally introduced himself as captain of the 10th Company.

Shinji finally followed suit. "Hirako Shinji, captain of the 5th Company…Momo's captain, obviously. I want to thank you for taking care of my subordinate all this time. And 'Shirô- _chan_ ' wants to thank you, too, for taking care of his childhood friend, but he's too shy to say it out loud." Tôshirô glared at the man, and Kain wisely decided to not interfere or comment on this interesting exchange.

Finally the last one present moved forward to present herself. "I'm Kuchiki Rukia, lieutenant of 13th Company," the raven-haired girl informed him. "I, especially, owe my life and more to your father, Kain Lockeheart- _san_ …it's a pleasure to meet his son."

"Kuchiki- _san_ …are you related to Kuchiki Byakuya- _san_ , then…?"

"He's my _nii-sama_ ," Rukia confirmed. "I'm sorry he didn't come join us…."

"Kuchiki seems to have his own agenda at the moment," Tôshirô sighed. "I'm more concerned about the missing members of 11th Company…."

"Oh, I'm sure they just got bored and went around looking for things to fight," Shinji chuckled. "They came here to have battles, after all…."

"Or they're lost," Renji sighed. "Zaraki - _taichô_ tends to listen to the instructions of his lieutenant, and despite her claims, she has a horrible sense of direction…."

"Hmm…speaking of horrible senses of direction, Isumi- _chan_ is missing, too," Kajirô noted. "Well, I suppose they may have met up and gotten lost together…somehow, I don't think we really need to worry about any of them…."

8-8-8

The huge scarred man in the white _haori_ ran through the trees, two little girls clinging to his back—one dressed like a Soul Reaper, with short pink hair, and one in a fine pink _kimono_ with long blue-black hair. Running along behind were a bald Soul Reaper and another man with a strange mantle and a bowl cut. The pink-haired girl laughed as they ran.

"Hey, aren't we getting more lost?" demanded the bald Ikkaku Madarame crossly. "It doesn't seem to matter which of those girls leads!"

"Oh, shut up, Baldy!" the pink-haired girl, Yachiru Kusajishi, told him crossly.

As Ikkaku began to fume, Kenpachi Zaraki declared, "Bah, I really don't care. Once the fighting starts, we'll feel it well enough and we can go join in. For now, these forests in Arcanus Myrror are supposed to be full of nasty creatures. We'll get some fun in cutting them to pieces!"

"No, that will not do," murmured Isumi from his other shoulder. "These natural creatures should not be killed frivolously…."

Kenpachi did not look happy. "Ah…can we just cut them a little then…?"

"If we have to defend ourselves, of course we will," Isumi agreed seriously. "But we should try to preserve their life, not destroy it…."

"Ah, fine then! We'll go looking…for peace and quiet, but I'm sure we'll find fights…to preserve life!"

And so the happy party ran ignorantly around, out of trouble (for the most part)….

8-8-8

Urahara entered from a sliding door that had, at first glance, been just another wall, and slid it shut behind him. "Well, well, it looks like everyone is here," he said cheerfully. "Or at least almost everyone. Enough to get started with." He glanced around bemusedly at the assembled army and continued, "I know some of us have introduced ourselves, but while I don't like to seem like a primary school teacher, we should probably make sure we at least all know where we stand here...

"I'll start. I'm Urahara Kisuke, formerly a _shinigami_ of Soul Society, and now a simple candy shop owner...but I assisted Kalan Lockeheart in the war twenty years ago (after he did the same for me and the Soul Society), and now that the Obsidian Star is at it again, it's up to all of us to stop them. Otherwise, all our worlds could be in danger. I would imagine, at least, that whatever motivations and personal vendettas each of you hold, you are here because you're willing to fight against them.

"Our _shinigami_ friends here are obvious...like me, they owe Kalan Lockeheart a great deal for his efforts of twenty years ago, and have been sent to help Kain Lockeheart, the son of Kalan Lockeheart, whom I sure each of you know, at least by reputation. Most of you already have ties to one or more members of his White Wings, the party he's formed largely from his students and friends at Mahora Academy. They came here with the simple desire to learn more of the past and possible present location of Kalan Lockeheart, but were immediately attacked by the Obsidian Star upon their arrival, at the same time that they destroyed the Gateports. Their primary objective, of course, is simply to safely return home...to that end, certain of their number are even now searching for Orimus' Gateport so that they can reactivate it and make the transfer back to Earth. However, when given an opportunity to do so by the Obsidian Star, their illustrious leader instead opted to refuse to sacrifice Arcanus Myrror for their benefit and went to war against them." Kisuke smiled kindly and mischievously at Kain.

A few actually applauded at this, and Kain laughed sheepishly. "Don't congratulate me for that. Lina and Mai were the ones who really broke down the negotiations. But anyway, because of that, we can be sure that we'll probably have to go through the Obsidian Star before we can make it home...but my main priority is still, at the very least, getting my uninvolved students—meaning the six who sneaked into Arcanus Myrror without knowing what they were getting into—back home to Mahora safely."

"As Urahara- _san_ said, we each have our own motivations," growled Zelgadis Greywords, who then introduced himself. "I personally have my own vendetta against the Obsidian Star, as you say...I don't necessarily consider myself your friend, but I know that fighting them will take an army of at least this size, so until I get what I want from them, I'll work with all of you."

"That's fine," Shunsui said casually. "We've pretty much established that this patchwork group is full of independent minds. But now that we're officially 'at war', we should be planning out our strategies and objectives. I'd first like to hear more from Kain Lockeheart, who, of course, is responsible for this little army gathering here in the first place."

Kain sighed as he was made the center of attention again and smiled grimly. "As Urahara- _san_ explained, and as most of you are well aware, we were scattered at the Gateport in order to escape the Obsidian Star's forces. In order to gather our party back together, particularly the, ah, 'stowaways', or whatever you want to call them, I had to find a way of communicating with everyone...particularly after finding that we had been framed for the Gateports' destruction and had the authorities and bounty hunters of the entire world after us. I also found four of my students in slavery because of their early misfortunes, and had to find a means of rescuing them.

"For these reasons and others, I entered the Granicus gladiatorial league and began to fight with the eye of making it here, to this 'Memorial Tournament', using a special disguise to keep myself hidden...and, as I'm sure you've all heard, with a rather audacious name to attract attention. Most of my objectives in doing this have succeeded—minus only a very few, whom we should hopefully meet soon, my class and our friends are all here, and I've taken the other steps I needed. However, I still have to win this tournament in order to get the funds to buy my four students out of slavery—by far the easiest way to rescue them, although I have fallback options if necessary.

"For whatever reason, the Obsidian Star is also gathered here at Orimus at this time. We can only expect that they will find other moments to interfere with us...and we will have to take any opportunities we can to interfere with them as well. It would help if we knew their objective..."

"A-actually, we do," Nodoka quavered. She blanched as she felt the force of the entirety of the room's attention on her, but she bravely wandered over to Chisame, who was holding Nodoka's book for her with a blank look on her face. Chisame handed the book over to Nodoka, surprising the girl somewhat—apparently Nodoka had hoped that Chisame would take the burden of explaining the matter for her—but she took her artifact and turned back to her audience. "My artifact, 'Diarium Ejus', relates to me the mind of any person whose name I call, if I know their real name and can hear my words. I learned the real name of their apparent leader, Eminus, using this 'Demon's Lullaby'—his true name is 'The Remnant'."

"'The Remnant'..." Jûshirô murmured. "Of course, those of us who participated in the last war are familiar with the Eminus beings, but a name like that...seems a little off..." He shook his head. "In any case, Miyazaki- _ojô-chan_ , I assume from your earlier comments that you were also able to read the mind of 'Remnant' Eminus?"

"Y-yes...however, even as I did so, he attacked me, and while I was saved by Kuchiki Byakuya- _san_ , my book was turned to stone as well..."

She held the book up, and continued, "Because it's stone, I can't turn any of the pages, but what was written here is still plainly visible."

"Were you trying to kill yourself, Nodoka!?" Lina burst out upon hearing this. "Getting close enough to the big villain like that." She shook her head and smiled. "Still, I'm sure you've heard enough of that from Kain already. Well done, in any case. What does it say?"

She laid in down on a small table in the middle of the room. Many people wanted to gather around it, but by unspoken agreement they finally allowed Kain to kneel closest in front of it with Shunsui, Kisuke, and Lina close enough to read over his shoulder. A few others gathered on the other side, trying to read upside down...

The usual childish pictures of Eminus adorned the top of both pages. The Eminus on the both pages had speech bubbles: 'My goodness' and 'You're quite the fool. Just call me Eminus, or Pakrov if you must. I hate the 'name' 'Remnant',' said the first page. 'Pakrov- _kun_ 's Battle Plan!'and 'Beware of spoilers,' said the other.

Then there was the entry line: Remnant, November 13th'. The first page told of Eminus immediate perception of Nodoka: 'It's not my intention to involve humans from the old world, but I simply can't turn a blind eye to you and the danger your artifact poses. I apologize, but you'll have to make your exit here.' The next page, under the 'Battle Plan', was, finally, the actual plans, in bullet point format:

Primary Objective: fuse the seven worlds of this Reality Sphere together into a new home for the Obsidian Star. Remaining humanoids will be put to rest within the Cosmo Entelecheia, maintaining the new world's semi-mortal existence.

To accomplish this: Step One: Destroy all active Gateports in the world – Completed.

Search the surroundings of Orimus for the Old Gateport, and secure it – In Progress.

Capture the Crystal Princess, Bonus Objective – Failure.

Render the son of the hero, Kain Lockeheart, Powerless – Failure.

Create a diversion to restrain the powers of each nation – In Progress.

Rebuild the Obsidian Palace – Completed.

This was the end of the page. "As you can see," Chisame remarked from the side as they read, "it's quite lovely, but those drawings really kill the tension level..." Nodoka apologized for their appearance.

" _Seven_ worlds!?" Lina burst out. "What do they mean, _seven_!? Even if we go beyond Arcanus Myrror and Earth...are we talking about Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, too? But that's only four, even so! Where are these other worlds coming from!?"

"I see," chuckled Xellos, finally making his appearance as he manifested, floating the air near the ceiling. "I apologize, Miss Lina. I really underestimated their knowledge and their capabilities—and their audacity. It's the same plan that I suspected and explained to you, but the scope is far greater."

He introduced himself as 'Xellos, the Roguish Priest', and continued, "The 'Reality Sphere' refers to all worlds within a certain dimensional distance of each other. The actual definition varies from world to world, distance-wise...in this case, there are seven mortal worlds, not spiritual planes like Soul Society or purely magical realms like the abyssal home of the _mazoku_ you all know, in close proximity to each other, close enough for the Obsidian Star to pull off this plane—because of Arcanus Myrror. Well, I think that that story is one we should save for another time; just think of these seven worlds as being in a kind of magical 'solar system' equivalent. The important point is that the Obsidian Star has the potential to bring these worlds into contact with one another and fuse them into a single world—causing untold chaos and destruction across all seven in the process, naturally. Even if they are mortal worlds, it's hard to say what kind of impact that will have on Soul Society and the rest...in any case, it's a disaster that must be avoided."

"Yes," Shunsui murmured. "This is even more serious than we thought. Obviously a plan like this would have to have a lot of variables and requirements...I'd daresay that it would take something like the Crystal Princess to pull off this plan, but apparently they have only been targeting her half-heartedly...? It would be nice if we could read more than this..."

"Nodoka, can you dismiss and re-summon your artifact?" Lina demanded. "Wouldn't that cancel the stone effect?"

"We've thought about it, but we figured it would lose all the information," Chisame sighed. "Like re-booting a computer from a forced shut-down, in the middle of a data freeze or something."

"Hmm. Makes sense. Damn! This is super-important information! What else is required to actually pull this off? The need to distract the powers of this world shows that there's things we can do to interfere, that it's not foolproof or in the very final stages, but still..."

Kenjirô was inspecting all of the book except its writing. "Wait," he said. "I think I see a small crack here in the next page—a small gap, like it was turned to stone while a little loose, with one page just starting to turn." He manifested a tiny knife and tried to slide it into the gap. "Lucky break! I might be able to pry this loose..."

With a final twist of the knife, the page broke, coming loose of the rest of the book. There was a brief half-excited half-afraid cacophony from the crowd, but Kain carefully picked up the page and inspected the other side. The words were hard to make out, as the page had been stoned stuck to the page on the opposite side, but he managed to read just a little...

'You're reading this, aren't you, Kain- _kun_? Regardless of being created for this purpose, I don't care...' 'My only wish is to fight against you...' '...Since the Grand Archmage and I defeated each other ten years ago...'

Kain's eyes widened in shock and he instinctively crushed the page to pieces in his hands. As the group around him yelped at this development, Kain, ignoring them all, turned his gaze to Aiden, who had been sitting placidly by the bar, slowly and casually drinking a glass of spirits.

"Aiden," Kain said. "You've been quiet a while, but something about Eminus bothered you. What _is_ he, exactly?"

Aiden chuckled and set down his glass. "Well...I'm not really sure. As some of 'em said, as Kamo's surely told you, he's not the first 'Eminus' we've encountered. From what some of them said, the real Eminus was an Obsidian scientist who created these elemental-golem weapons. We fought a few back during the war...but they all looked pretty much the same, same size, same build, only the hair and eyes differing because of their elemental affiliation. When Kamo first started telling me about the kid 'Eminus', I dismissed the thought; I figured he was just some new recruit taking the name for himself to be tough or something. At least unil I saw him. This one is the real deal, but...he's different in some ways. He shouldn't look like such a kid—all the rest were adults. I'm not sure that an Eminus should have been able to make contracts, but the fact that he can is interesting all on its own. And with a name like 'The Remnant'—I somehow think the implication of a name meaning 'what's left over' is referring to the ashes left after a fire. He could be worse news than I thought.

"Anyway, now that we've come this far, I guess I have no choice. I'll tell you a little something...about the Red Wings and the Obsidian Star. Some personal spoilers..."

The group stared in shock. Aiden directed everyone to assemble themselves together in the back of the room; as Aiden continued to explain himself, Kisuke went to fiddle with things behind the counter. "If you guys are seriously going to fight these guys, I guess I should at least tell all of you who they really are...at least as far as we figured everything out. However, the great treasure hunter Aiden doesn't like talking so much about the old days..."

"Liar," Delryn muttered under his breath, but loud enough for most of the room to hear.

"...So I'll have to resort to these right here." Aiden removed a collection of discs from his coat and held them up like a hand of cards. He smiled. "Special limited-edition films of the adventures of the Red Wings!"

"You had those prepared all this time, just waiting for the right moment, didn't you!?" Chisame cursed him angrily.

F I N

 _Author's Note: Soul Reapers and Flashbacks_

 _This is just an ending chapter, kind of an introduction before heading into 'Aiden's Story' and tying up the loosest ends here—Kain and Nodoka, Kain and Momo (and everyone else) the arriving Soul Society, and our estimation of the villains—their tactics and some scary thoughts about them._

 _Some of the Soul Reapers with the biggest connections to Kain and his friends (including Momo) were chosen to make this attack force, as described in 11's Prologue—Kyôraku is the leader of this force, with his own buddy Ukitake (who is also Rukia's captain), Byakuya's lieutenant Renji (also Momo's classmate and Rukia's best friend), Momo's own captain Shinji, and Momo's best friend, Tôshirô, and his lieutenant Rangiku. In addition, we have the wild 11_ _th_ _Company, but they, uninterested in old stories and missions and such, are out looking for fun, and it's amusing to think that lost little Isumi would meet up with them and try to make them more lost. And Isumi, being a cute comedy character/powerful spiritualist, is someone even Captain Zaraki can't say no to (and Yachiru can get along with her fairly well, too)._

 _So, this should be enough: we're having a flashback mini-Act, then moving on to the tournament in Act 13! Away we go!_


End file.
